Dark Side
by emeralazzaly
Summary: Josie Summers (O/C) moves into the Murder House and gets involved with the ghosts that live there, especially an attractive young man (Tate). Will she and her family survive their stay there?
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own Tate Langdon or any of the characters from the show American Horror story. I also do not own any of the music or movies used here. There are several facts and quotes also from AHS that I did not come up with. However, Josie and her family and friends are my own creation. This is rated M for sexual situations, language, and some violence. Hope you enjoy! Please feel free to review! (Title is a song by Kelly Clarkson: Darkside)  
**_

It was only a week after my family moved into the large old, somewhat smelly house that I saw him. He was hidden in the shadows of my bedroom, in the corner. I could see the outline of him in the darkness, young, innocent looking from what I could see from where I was. I sat up in my bed, hugging the comforter to me, not knowing who this was with me. His lips curled into a devious half smile when he saw me notice him, sending a chill down my spine.

Man was he scary.

Man was he _sexy._

"Who-who are you?" I asked.

He didn't reply, just continued to stand there in the corner. Watching me.

I felt my body start to shake, fear creeping over my skin as my mind started shifting from it's sleepy state and registering that there was _someone in my bedroom._

I reached over to my bedside table and flicked the button on the lamp, sending light into the room. I turned my eyes back to where I had saw him.

Nothing.

But how was that possible.

_You must have been dreaming, _I thought pulling myself out of bed and slipping on my house shoes. I crept out of my room, trying not to wake my younger brother or my father. After getting a glass of water and convincing myself that I hadn't really seen anything, I went back to bed. Sleep fell over me quickly, giving me my first good night of sleep in the new house.

* * *

The next morning I found my family in the dining room. My father was dressed in his usual business attire, slacks and a button up, no doubt ready to go to work. He had obtained a job as a college professor at the school nearby and moved us to this new town. He had tried to make it out as an exciting experience and insist that we would be better off here. Better off away from where my mother had died. A freak accident. Car crash, 6 months ago. My heart ached now as I thought about it.

The reality was this: I was seventeen years old and stuck at a new school where I knew no one. Had no friends.

"Sweetie, I wish you wouldn't wear so much make up," my father said as I grabbed a packet of Pop Tarts. Cherry. My favorite.

I rolled my eyes, knowing exactly what he was referring to. My dark grey eye shadow layered on heavily over my eyelids, black eyeliner lining my eyes and curling out on the ends. My dark lipstick a stark contrast to my pale, white skin. It wasn't the first time he said this to me. "Whatever, Dad."

"You need to take off that lipstick. I'm not letting you go out of the house like that," he insisted, crossing his arms.

"But dad…"

"No buts, take it off now."

"Uggg," I growled, walking over to the sink and removing it with a paper towel. I turned around to grab my things.

"Josie!" my little brother exclaimed when he saw me, reaching out in his chair to be picked up.

"Hey little guy," I said, feeling a smile spread over my face, one that was mostly reserved for him and _sometimes _other people. I didn't do that often. I leaned down and picked him up into my arms. I twirled his small frame around once and sat him back down.

"You go to school today?"

"Yes, I have to," I said, wishing that I could stay home with him. Even if it was in this creepy old house. He'd be staying with our live in maid, Moira, who had mysteriously shown up on our doorstep one day and never left. She was just as creepy as this house, and probably just as old. But she seemed to love Dillon and for some crazy reason, my dad seemed to trust her with him.

My little brother stuck his lower lip out at me in a pout, "Tate wants you to stay here with me."

_Tate._

"Who?" I asked curiously, squatting down beside him.

"Tate," he said simply again and took a big spoonful of his cereal. He looked past me, giggling, "I _know._ She won't listen to me."

I looked over my shoulder and into the hallway where his eyes were focused, seeing nothing there.

"He's got himself a new imaginary friend," my dad explained, coming over and handing me my black messenger bag.

I stood up and took it from him, an uneasy feeling settling over me as I turned back to him, "I see…well I guess I'm going to head out."

"Okay, I love you," I heard my dad say as I rushed out the door.

"Ditto, dad!" I exclaimed as I continued to move myself quickly down the stairs and hopped on the bus.

* * *

I walked into school, feeling more comfortable than I had at home, knowing I was safe while I was there. I wasn't so sure about this new house and always had this sinking feeling while I was there. Weird people kept showing up to greet us as their neighbors and we'd only been there for a week. I wasn't one to be really social either, retreating to my bedroom when they came knocking on the door. I grabbed my books and walked to class, taking my usual seat in the back of the classroom. The usual people sat down around me, noticing me for just a second before they started to talk to their friends. It was halfway through the school year and no one wanted to make new friends with the weird new girl.

I'd actually dressed in all black today to freak them out even more.

It was fun.

"Psst," I heard during role call that morning.

I looked towards the sound, seeing the girl beside me wave, "Hey, I'm Anne. Love your eye shadow."

"Thanks," I whispered, trying not to call attention to myself. I didn't need the teacher pining me as a bad kid. My grades were important, even if I pretended they weren't. They came naturally to me.

"I really liked that purple color you had on yesterday. Totally cool."

"Thanks."

"You're Josie Summers right?" she asked, her brown eyes sparkling. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a pony tail that fell over her red and black plaid flannel shirt. She had on skinny jeans, converse, and a sparkly nose ring that I was pretty sure was illegal at this school.

I nodded, "Are we allowed to have piercings?"

"No," she giggled.

I heard the teacher say my name and I jumped slightly, responding with a "Here" and seeing him move on down the list. He hadn't caught us whispering.

"You should totally eat lunch with me and my friends today. I think you'd like them."

"Why would you think that?" I asked.

She shrugged, "Hey, dude, it's whatevs."

I paused, not really sure that I wanted to make new friends. Especially since I had big plans to move back home, out of the strange house, and away from these people. But I guess I didn't have to be lonely in the meantime.

"Sure," I said, nodding and turning back to the lecture ahead of us.

I met her and her pals at lunch, each of them turning out to be vegetarians and leaving me the only meat eater at the table. Somewhat weird, but they didn't seem to mind. We talked about our favorite bands and novels, and I found that we had a lot in common. There was Anne and her bestie Mandie, as well as Josh and Matthew (Josh of which wore eyeliner as thick as mine, much to the other students' dislike). They invited me over to their house on the weekend for a big party they were having. Josh swore that there would be older guys there, ones that could get us some booze and watch scary movies.

I gave a non-committal, "I dunno, maybe" because I was not sure I could get out from under the grasp of my father long enough to party.

"Or we could have it at your house," Mandie replied, running her hand through her short red hair.

I looked down at the table and laughed, "Yeah right. My dad would kill me."

"Maybe you could get him to go somewhere," Josh said.

"There's a Halloween ball going on, he could go there," Anne suggested.

I laughed again, "Getting my dad to go to _any _kind of party would be a miracle. He's too busy watching me and making sure I don't do anything crazy."

"But it would be so cool!" Matthew exclaimed, his brown eyes beaming at me, "You know it's haunted right?"

That got my attention, "What?"

"Your house," he said, running his hand through his shaggy brown hair and wetting his lips like he was ready to give me some really good information.

"Here we go," Anne whispered to me, rolling her eyes as he continued.

"There have been several murders that have taken place in that house since it was built in the 1920s. That's why they call it Murder House."

"Shut up, you're going to freak her out," Anne snapped.

I ignored her, my blue eyes concentrating on Matthew, "No, please continue."

"Well, they have tours that drive by there and talk about it actually."

"That's really weird…"

"Just don't be outside when they drive by and they won't bother you," Josh explained.

"So what happened there?" I asked, eager to learn more information. I loved ghost stories, loved visiting haunted houses with my friends back home and tried to capture them on film. We'd gotten some pretty cool images before but I seemed to be the only one that really believed in ghosts. It was nice to meet someone else who did.

Matthew raised his hands up, curling his fingers and trying to be creepy, "They say the original owner of the house and his wife performed abortions in their basement until one day…one of the patients killed their son and cut him up into pieces. The doctor went crazy and sewed him back together. He created a monster."

"Ew," Mandie said, pushing her tray away from her and crossing her arms, "That's disgusting."

"Then what?" I asked impatient to hear the rest of the story.

"Well, they say that his wife went crazy after the monster baby bit her and shot both her husband and herself with a shotgun. Blew her brains out all over the place."

"Ew," Mandie said again.

"Is that it?" I questioned.

"Not by far. There have been a series of murders and suicides taking place in that house. They say that anyone who ever died in there still haunts it to this day."

"And people keep dying there," Josh interjected.

"Yeah."

Anne shook her head, "So maybe you should move out of there. I'd hate for you to die."

The bell sounded over the cafeteria, signaling that it was time for us to go to our next period. I was dying to ask Matthew more questions but we didn't have time. I followed them to put up our trays and went on to the next class, wondering if he was right and my house was really haunted.

* * *

I walked through the door of my house that afternoon, finding my brother in the floor of the living room playing with his toys.

"Shhh," he said to the space beside him when he saw me, pulling his finger to his lips to signaling to be quiet.

I knelt down beside him and looked at his toys, "Batman huh?"

"Yeah!" he exclaimed, picking up the dark figure and showing it to me, "Isn't he cool!? He kills the bad guys like this!" He picked up another figure off the floor, the Joker, and started hitting them together, making sound effects each time they hit.

"Wow, he's tough."

"He's Batman, _Sissy_," he said, unimpressed with me and rolling his eyes.

I plopped down on my bottom, crossing my legs and reaching for a figure I hadn't seen before. It was an old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle from the 80s, "Where'd you get this?"

"Tate gave it to me," he said, giving me that attitude again.

_How is that possible._

"What's with the attitude?"

He looked over his shoulder and laughed, "I told you she'd say that."

He was quiet for a minute, listening and turning back to me, "He says you make funny noises when you sleep."

My breath caught in my throat, my mouth growing dry as I struggled to reply. I had slept wonderfully last night, which meant that he had been watching me sleep before then. Josh's voice creeping up into my mind: _And people keep dying there. _"I think maybe you should stop talking to him. I don't think he's very friendly."

Was it possible that my brother was really seeing something I wasn't? I'd read that children could see ghosts and were more open to that sort of thing. If he was, I didn't want anything to happen to him. According to Matthew, there were several more lurking in the old home and I didn't know if any of them were friendly.

"Dillon, what's Tate look like?" I asked, his name playing over my lips awkwardly, dropping to a whisper when the question came out. Maybe he wouldn't hear us talking about him. My brother had imagined friends before and they were always harmless, but if this was a spirit, I didn't want him to know that I was onto his games.

He looked back over his shoulder, mouth going into a frown as he turned back to me, "You made him leave."

"I'm sorry sweetie," I said and placed my hands on either side of his face, staring into his blue eyes, "I was just curious at what he looked like. Remember Binkly? You said he was a talking kitty cat?"

My brother's eyes lit up again, "Yeah! He was so much fun! I wish we could have brought him with us."

He was missing the point entirely. "I know you miss him, but it sounds like you have a new friend now."

"Lots of new friends," he said, correcting me.

I frowned, worried about what he was trying to say, "What do you mean?"

"Well I don't see them _all._ Sometimes I just hear them running around. There's someone in the basement and someone in the attic. Tate says I shouldn't go meet them though."

"I think he's probably right, don't go to those places alone ok?" I begged, fear gripping at me at what he was saying. I hadn't heard anything in the house. I hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary until last night when I thought I'd seen someone in my room…_In my bedroom._

"Can I play now?" Dillon asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I placed a small kiss on his forehead and stood up, "Sure go ahead."

I walked over to the kitchen and retrieved a soda from the refrigerator, taking a long sip of it as I walked over to the basement door. I opened it slowly, flipping the light switch and looking down the ominous stairs. _What are you doing, _I thought to myself as I took the stairs two at a time until I reached the bottom. I pulled my phone from pocket and turned on the camera, ready if any ghosts decided to show themselves. I hadn't gone hunting by myself before so I wasn't surprised at the hair on the back of my neck standing on end as I walked into the room and let the quietness take me over. I walked forward, creeping through the large room and trying to avoid the dark corners where the light did not cast itself. I was afraid to see something while I was alone in the darkness, but I was fascinated at the thought of not being alone. There wasn't any real reason to be scared, I tried to convince myself, ghost couldn't touch people. They were spirits. They didn't have enough sustenance to reach out and grab me. I was safe. It was okay.

Finally I made it around the room, phone held out in front of me, watching through the screen instead of looking around. I turned to go back up the stairs, somewhat disappointed when I hadn't seen anything. It was then that I heard a small sound, like a child, behind me. I froze, dropping my can of soda to the floor. Gripping the railing tightly, I paused and considered my options, scared to see what that bouncing noise was getting closer to me. Taking a deep breath, I slowly moved my body around. A small burgundy ball landing nearby, rolling towards me and stopping when it hit the bottom of the step.

"Oh _shit,_" I said, knowing there was no one in the basement with me. I knew it. I'd checked. I was alone.

I reached down to pick up the ball, turning around in my hand and seeing nothing out of the ordinary about it. I set it back down on the hard concrete and kicked it across the room into the darkness. I pushed the button on my phone to change it to video mode and aimed it at where the ball had disappeared.

I waited for a few minutes for the ball to return, anticipation creeping up in my body as I stood there in the damp basement.

_Come on._

"Are you looking for this?" a young man's voice came from across the room, freezing me in place again. I saw him step out into the dim light, clad in a green and black striped sweater, jeans, and converse. His blonde hair fell across his forehead, longer in the back and slightly wavy. He had to be around my age, young and familiar looking as he stood there with the ball in his hand.

I felt myself step backwards up the stairs, putting distance between us as I rose higher on the staircase, "What are you doing in my house."

"_Your_ house?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and taking a few steps towards me.

"Yes," I answered, taking another step towards the top of the stairs.

He continued to walk towards me, obviously not concerned that he was scaring the hell out of me, "I used to live here actually. Me and my mom and my siblings."

"How'd you get in here?"

He reached into his pocket, retrieving a key and dangling it in front of him, "I still have a key."

_Oh._

"Well, you should probably give that to me and get out," I snapped.

He laughed, reaching the stairs and ascending them until he stood right in front of me. He leaned into me, stopping inches away from me and tucking the key into his pocket, "I'll leave if that's what you want, but I'll be back."

"I'll change the locks."

"I'll still be back. I have this…connection to the house," he said, boring those deep brown eyes into mine as he spoke, showing me that he was not joking. He moved closer to me, causing me to back up against the railing to let him by. He laughed again, stepping around me and continuing up the stairs. He let the ball drop behind him, bouncing along the stairs until it hit the concrete and rolled across the basement.

But it didn't hit the wall like it should have.

I raced up the stairs behind the stranger, freaked out and convinced that something was going to come up behind me. I followed him out into the hallway, determined to make sure he left.

"So, what's your name?" he asked as I caught up with him.

"You first."

"I don't think so," he said, shaking his head.

"Josie Summers."

"Well, Josie Summers, you should probably be more careful walking around by yourself in the dark."

"I live here, it's not like I'm out in public roaming around," I said as he reached the door, opening it and stepping outside.

"You never know what could be lurking in the dark," he said, looking over my shoulder and into the hallway where we just came as if something was there. I turned my head to look in that direction, wondering what was so damn interesting.

"I don't see anything," I said, turning back to the door. He was gone. I looked outside, eyeing either side of the backyard and seeing no one. _Must have scared him off, _I thought, confused at how quickly he'd disappeared. I shut the door behind me and went back inside. I grabbed my messenger bag and made my way to my bedroom, hoping homework would rid me of this sinking feeling that something bad was going to happen.


	2. Chapter 2

_I packed my backpack differently that morning, enjoying the heavy feel of it on my back and knowing that today was the day. I looked at myself in the morning, content with the black skeletal make up that stared back at me. My black hair was slicked back over my head, falling in a greasy mess behind me. I sat the backpack down on the floor of the bathroom and pulled out a long, heavy shotgun. I took my other weapons out of the bag and put them on my person, hiding them in my trench coat, and leaving the bathroom. I could feel them staring at me as I walked through the halls, knowing they were judging me. They didn't know what was about to come for them. They would see soon, I thought as I walked through the hallway, whistling to myself._

_I walked into the classroom, everyone looking up at me with weird expression on their faces. I could see the smirks on some of their faces, turning to fear as I reached into my coat and retrieved the shotgun, aiming it into the room and firing._

_BOOM!  
_

"Noooo!" I screamed, jerking out of my deep sleep and knocking the books off of my desk and onto the floor. My heart was pounding in my chest, my adrenaline rushing through my veins as I tried to comprehend where I was. My room. I'm home.

_It was just a dream. _

I leaned down to retrieve my homework off the floor and realized I must have dozed off while finishing it off. My math stared back up in me, mostly empty as I sat it back down on the table. I groaned, running my fingers through my hair and laying my head back down on the table. This was never going to get done.

I reached for my iPod to turn it on, give me some sort of sound to keep me awake. I pushed the play button on my classical music playlist, but it didn't work. I pushed it again, thinking maybe the touch screen was just being picky. Still it didn't play.

"Stupid thing," I growled and placed it forcefully back in its place across the desk. I shuffled through my papers to find my notes from class today so I could remind myself what I was supposed to be doing. My clock blinked at me from where the papers were, showing me that it was almost bedtime. I'd been out for three hours and my stomach was grumbling at me, upset that I'd missed dinner.

I stood up and stretched, reaching my arms up into the air and letting my feet rise up on my tiptoes.

"Everything okay?" my dad asked, stepping into the doorway.

I nodded, coming back down on my feet and crossing my arms, "Yeah, why?"

"I heard you scream."

"I had a nightmare," I explained.

"Oh. Well, I'm glad you're okay. There's spaghetti in the fridge if you want to get some."

I nodded, "That sounds awesome."

"Okay," he said, awkwardly, still unsure of how to talk to me, be the parent after mom died. He left the room and walked down the hall, probably going back to Dillon's room to get him to sleep.

I walked over to the door with food on my mind when my I heard my IPod start playing.

_All the other kids with the pumped up kicks better run, better run, outrun my gun. All the other kids with the pumped up kicks better run, better run, faster than my bullet._

I turned around, looking across the room and eyeing the device as if it were an alien. I walked over to it as it continued to play and looked down at it. That definitely wasn't what I was trying to get to play either. I didn't even think I had that song on my iPod. I reached down to pick it up and it stopped, turning itself off as I lifted it off the table. I pushed the button to turn it back on but it flashed the dead battery sign at me.

"Weird…" I whispered, sitting it down on the table and walking quickly out of the room to get my dinner before it decided to turn itself back on.

* * *

Matthew followed me out to the bus stop the following afternoon, "Are you sure we can't have this party at your house? It'd be so cool to have it at the Murder House. You could take us on a tour and-"

"Or I could not. It's my house, Matthew, not a museum."

"Oh, okay then. Well, could you show me around then?" he asked, grabbing my hand as I went to get on the bus.

I felt my heart thudding harder in my chest, "I, uh, yeah sure. If my dad's not home. He's a little anal about…boys"

"Hey, I get it!" he said and pulled me towards the other part of the parking lot where the student drivers' cars were parked, "So how do you like Westfield High?"

"It's okay, I guess," I mumbled, "I'm not a big fan of school."

"Well, it's a pretty good school. I think you'll get used to it."

"I'm not planning on being here long enough to get use to it. If it's up to me, we will be going back east. It's cooler there. People aren't so stuck up and weird."

I saw his face fall as we neared his car, "Oh, well that's sad. I was hoping you'd stick around for a while."

"Sorry to burst your bubble. I've already seen the preppy girls looking at me and summing me up. I wouldn't be surprised to find a dead cat in my locker tomorrow."

He laughed at me and opened my door, "I don't think you will. You scare them."

"I do?" I asked, letting a sneaky smile play over my face.

"Yes, I believe so."

He went around to his side of the car and got in, so I did the same. I let myself enjoy the feeling of the leather seats underneath me and pulled on my seatbelt.

"I'm not that scary am I?" I asked as we pulled out of the school.

"No, not really. But you live in the Murder House and you have worn all black all this week. And you don't ever smile at them and they think it's weird."

"How do you know all this? Are you a closet prep?'

He laughed, looking over at me and flashing that brilliant smile, almost encouraging me to smile back at him, "No, but my sister is a full out prep and she's talked about you."

"I see."

"Anything I can do to convince you not to do something crazy and move off?"

"Probably not."

"Okay then."

We found ourselves pulling up to my house a few minutes later. I frowned, seeing my father's car in the driveway, "Looks like I have to save the tour for another day."

"That's a shame."

I looked over at him, "Well thanks for the ride."

He reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear, his finger down my cheek, "Anytime, Josie."

I picked up my bag and exited the car, practically running up to the house because of the blush playing over my face.

"I didn't hear the bus pull up," my dad said when I walked inside, trying to sneak past him but failing miserably.

"I, uh, rode home with a friend," I answered, walking past him and hoping to get away before he could ask more questions.

He stepped in front of me, "What friend?"

"From school."

"A boy?"

I rolled my eyes, "Yes, dad, actually he is."

"Josie, we've talked about this. You need to be careful. You can't just be getting into cars with boys."

"Dad, I'm seventeen. If you'd let me drive the car every now and then maybe I wouldn't ride home with _boys."_

He pinched the bridge of his nose, obviously frustrated with me, "Look, just be careful okay?"

"Always am," I replied, walking around him and towards my room.

"Josie," I heard him say.

I paused and turned around, sighing and putting my hands on my hips in response, "What?"

"I'm going out to that Halloween ball tomorrow night. Dillon is staying next door with Ms. Langdon. I thought you should know."

"You're what?" I asked and burst out laughing, "I'm sorry, I, um. Are you going on a date?"

I could tell by the blush in his cheeks that he was, "Well, Josie, it's been a while since we lost your mother and I've made some new friends here and they invited me to go with them.

"But you don't even drink."

"It's not about the drinking."

"You don't dance…"

"Or the dancing."

I scowled, "Then what is it about?"

"Just trying to find a way to deal with this pain, Josie. I'm sure you understand."

I did, it hurt every time I pictured her face in my head. Sometimes I wanted to join her on the other side, changing my mind only when I remembered that my little brother needed me. I got it…but… "Go see a counselor."

"I didn't expect you to be okay with this, and I'm sure it's a shock. I'm going and that's the end of that. If you want to have some girls over I'm also okay with that."

_What?! _"Are you serious?"

"Yes."

I ran back down the hallway and threw my arms around him, "Thanks dad. I appreciate it."

He pulled back and looked down at me, smiling at me in the way fathers could when they look at their daughters, "I won't be home until late that night, possibly early the next morning and I want to know that you remember the rules."

"No drugs or alcohol," I said, nodding and turning on my heels to go back to my room to text Anne the good news.

"What else?" I heard him ask behind me.

I rolled my eyes, "And no boys."

"Yes, exactly, and I'm serious."

"No problem dad."

The following morning my father woke me up at seven o'clock, much to my irritation. Thankfully he woke me up from another horrible dream, one in which I had doused some poor man in gasoline and lite him on fire. My father however, insisted that I get up and help him peel the wallpaper off the walls so we could show off the original wall behind it. I insisted that he let me go back to sleep before I killed someone.

He won.

I pulled my shoulder length black hair into a ponytail and threw on an old Pixies t-shirt and jeans. I followed him into the hallway, noticing the pile of objects that were laying in the floor to help us remove the paper.

"I hope you told Dillon not to come in here. That's a serious pile of tools you have in here."

"He's busy playing in his room."

"It's still dangerous."

That exasperated look crossed over his face, "Do we have to do this today?"

"Yes it's a teenage requirement that I make your life hell."

He smiled, shaking his head and pushed the step ladder over to me, "Here, get started and I am going to get us some water."

He walked off into the other room and I started working, climbing to the top of the step ladder with the tool and working it along the side of the wallpaper. It was a stingy material, sticking to the wall underneath it and threatening to mess it up as I pulled at it. I growled, my patience quickly running thin.

I heard the pile of tools rustle, "Dad, I don't know how much help I'm going to be at this. Its pissing me off."

Silence.

"Dad?" I asked, turning my head to see the knife that was floating in the air about five feet from me.

My mouth fell open in horror as I pulled my own tools down to my side. The knife twirled in the air a few times before shooting towards me.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, leaning backwards and tipping the ladder over and slamming into the floor. I pulled myself backwards along the ground to get away from the pile of tools decided to send something else my way.

My dad came running down the hallway, two sodas in hand as I was scrambling from the floor, "What in the world is going on?"

"The knife-it-it flew at my head!"

"What?" he asked, stepping closer to me.

"Don't move!" I exclaimed and felt my skin erupt in goose bumps, my body shaking tremendously. I was scared to death that he was going to get hurt.

He ignored me and walked over to where I had been standing earlier, examining the knife now protruding from the wall, "Josie, I can't believe you did this. Have you lost your mind?"

He looked at me and crossed his arms, waiting for an explanation.

"I, I told you! It flew at my head!"

"Don't lie to me. Knives don't just fly around unless someone throws them."

"Whatever," I hissed, "then you can pull off this crappy wallpaper yourself."

I made a scene of stomping off in the other direction, back to my bedroom, to go back to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

"You look incredibly hot," Mandie said, perched on the end of my bed that night in her tiny Little Bo Peep costume.

I couldn't disagree with her as I looked into the mirror on the back of my closet door. My hair was pulled into two braided pigtails that trailed down the top of my chest. My black dress hugged my body tightly down to the slight flair in the skirt. White cloth peeked out at my wrists and chest, imitating a button up shirt being underneath the dress. I also had on knee high black and white stripped socks and some short heels. My blue eyes were rimmed in their usual black with some dark shadow as well. I'd used a lighter powder on my face, giving the appearance that I was even paler than normal. I pulled the material at my waist downward, hoping to cover more of my legs but only lowering the already low neckline on the dress, "I didn't realize it was so revealing."

"Halloween is the perfect excuse to dress like a slut and get away with it," Anne said from the doorway as she walked in. She twirled around in her dress, which was also short, smacking the fake scissors on her hands against the door.

"Shit, sorry, Josie."

"It's alright. I'm just glad they aren't real, Ms. Scizzorhands," I said, taking in her fluffy black wig and knee high boots.

"Don't cover your legs, they're nice," she said, walking over to me and hiking my dress up again.

"I feel naked."

"You can't see anything," Mandie insisted, turning her head to the side.

The sound of the doorbell made me jump, throwing my hand to my chest and making me wonder if it'd been a good idea to bring my new friends to my strange and almost certainly haunted house. Both the girls squealed, running from the room with me on their heels. I hadn't shared the odd events of the past few days with them so they had no reason to worry. But I wasn't about to let them run through the house without me to watch over them.

"Hey!" Mandie exclaimed, opening the door and addressing our visitors.

Josh stepped inside, dressed as Sweeny Todd and holding out a bag to Anne, "Here's the booze. Got plenty of that fruity stuff you like."

She reached out for it, trying to grasp it and being unable to due to the long plastic scissors getting in the way, "Stupid gloves. Just sit it on the table."

She motioned over to the living room and that's where he went, several other guys and a couple of girls trailing behind him in their various costumes. I didn't recognize any of them.

Matthew came in last, several large pizza boxes in his hand. I stepped closer to the door and reached out to help him, blushing slightly at the way his jeans clung to him, white shirt peeking through his open black and red flannel shirt, "Who are you supposed to be?"

He moved over the side of his shirt, revealing a burlap sack and knife tucked into his jeans, "Jason. It was just too hard to hold that stuff and bring in the pizzas. Hey your neighbor is joining us by the way. He was outside on the porch when we got here, guess you didn't hear him knocking."

_Neighbor?_

The figure behind him stepped into the house, clad in a tight black shirt and jeans. His curly blonde hair was messy on top of his head, his dark eyes meeting mine as he shut the door behind him.

"_You_," I hissed as he walked past me to join the others in the room. It was the guy who had been in my basement a few days ago. _What was his name, _I thought, trying to remember what he said. Then I remembered he never told me.

"Hey Wednesday Addams," he said, taking in my costume, a smile curving at the edge of his lips.

I reached out to grab his arm, to pull him to the side and demand answers from him, but he stepped out of reach, "What are you doing here?"

"Joining the party, neighbor," he said, waving around to the others in the room who were oblivious to the tension that was between the two of us.

"Where's your costume?"

He shrugged, "I'm a serial killer."

"Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes and talking to the rest of the group, "I'm going to grab us some plates and cups."

"I'm coming with you!" Mandie exclaimed, following me into the kitchen.

I reached for the solo cups and plates that I had stashed in the cabinet, black for the occasion.

"Your neighbor is _hot,"_ she said, taking some of the party supplies in her hand.

"Is he?" I asked, realizing that I'd been too irritated with the stranger to really pay attention.

"Yes! And dude, I know you like Matthew and all but _that guy. _That guy has it going on."

I almost dropped the cups, "Matthew!?"

"It's written all over your face. But seriously! _That guy_," she said again, pointing as we reached the door. Everyone was seated in the living room round the small coffee table, and he was sitting there beside Matthew, looking at me. Looking at me with this intense gaze, jaw set hard as the others talked around him.

I shifted my eyes away from him, following Mandie into the room and seeing that someone had put in a movie for us, "What are we watching?"

"Halloween, the remake," Anne said from her place in Josh's lap.

"Dirty," I responded, sitting the supplies down on the table beside the liquor.

"We saved you a seat," Matthew said, scooting over and patting the seat between him and my not so welcome guest. I wanted so badly to sit there, maybe run my hand over his leg and show my _neighbor_ that he was not welcome here.

Instead I sat back where I was, into the free chair behind me, "I'm good."

I could still feel those brown eyes boring into me, making me nervous as everyone else talked around us. They started to distribute the liquor, one of the guys I didn't know making drinks and passing it around. When he handed me the cup, I thanked him and took a large gulp of the liquid, strawberry filling my mouth. I closed my eyes happily, opening them to see those brown eyes leave me for a minute, saying "no thanks" to the man offering him a drink and sitting back in the seat.

After everyone helped themselves to pizza and liquor, Anne spilt the beans, "So here we are in the Murder House, care for some scary stories?"

Matthew was the first to jump on it, sitting his cup down on the coffee table and looking around excitedly, "I was just telling the girls about the murders in this house. Have you seen anything weird yet?" He looked at me, brown eyes expecting something more than what he got.

I looked over at the other guy on the couch and back and Matthew, "Nope, sorry."

"Nothing?"

"No."

"Aw man, I thought for sure you'd have seen something by now. Maybe we should move the party to the basement?"

"No," me and my neighbor said at the same time.

Matthew turned his attention to him, "Dude, do you know something about this house?"

"Yeah, I used to live here."

"Did you ever see anything creepy?"

"All the time," he said, moving those daring eyes back to me, trying to push me to say something. What did he know exactly…he had said he'd lived here previously. What had happened that was so bad that his family moved…one house over. It hit me then, like a light bulb going off, he must be Ms. Langdon's son.

"So," Mandie said, leaning closer to him at that moment, "What did you see?"

He shrugged, turning to Matthew, "Why don't we hear some of your stories, I'd hate to steal the spotlight."

And just like that, everyone turned their attention away from him and to the lanky guy sitting beside him. Matthew was more than happy to tell a story about the house, going into detail about the nursing students who had been killed in the late 60s. He got to the gruesome murder, explaining it in detail. I could hear Mandie grossing out to the left of me and Anne shaking, grasping for her boyfriend. I looked around, seeing the other girls cringing as he said "This happened in this very room."

I hated to hear that these awful things had happened in my home, the place that was supposed to be safe and secure. I took another sip of my drink as Matthew went into another story of a young man who lived in the home who had killed his mother's lover by setting him on fire and then killed 15 students at _our _high school with a gun. I felt my heartbeat speed up as he continued on with this story, freaking out on the inside about how the story had aligned with my dream.

I looked around, seeing the scared faces of those around me. My eyes settled on my neighbor who was leaning over on his knees, face in hand, eyes tilted up at me under his upper eyelids. Watching me. Gauging my reaction. That serious expression playing over his face again. Everyone else was oblivious to the way he was looking at me, focused on Matthew's story as it became more grim and more disturbing.

I met those eyes with the same intensity, raising my eyebrows as if to ask "What!?" He smiled at me then, moving his eyes over to Matthew and back at me. I felt like it was just the two of us in the room, becoming aware of the way my own breathing was increasing, my thoughts beginning to be muddy due to the alcohol. His eyes continued to focus on me, my mind racing to wonder what he was thinking, the hair on the back of my neck standing on end as the story ended.

"We should play with the Ouija board," Josh suggested, reaching into a bag and pulling it out.

"I don't know about that," Mandie said, looking over at me for support.

"I, um, I dunno."

"You said you haven't seen anything," the blonde haired guy reminded me, pushing me to admit that I had.

"You said you have," I countered and poured myself another drink. The others followed behind me, making themselves a drink.

"That's it then," Josh said, opening the box and placing the board on it. Anne crawled out of his lap and into the floor to give him enough room to do so, both of them putting their hands on the triangular device.

"Who wants to ask a question?" Anne asked, looking around at us.

One of the guys I didn't know answered, " I want to know who is still here in this house."

All of us sat quietly, waiting for an answer, the sound of the movie playing being the only noise in the house.

Nothing happened.

Several more questions were asked and got the same reaction. None.

"This is boring," Mandie whined, hiccupping soon after and giggling, "Let's play seven minutes in heaven and spin the bottle."

"Yeah!" one of the other girls exclaimed, grabbing a nearby bottle and pushing the Ouija over on the table. She put the bottle sideways on the surface, and looked up at us, "Who goes first?"

"Well first we have to establish some rules," Matthew said, "we have to make sure we are all on the same page."

"Anything goes," Mandie suggested, slurring her words, "You spin the bottle and have to spend seven minutes in the clooooooset with whoever it lands on. Boy or girl. Simple as th-hat. You do whatever while you are in there and no one asks questions."

"Sounds good to me," Anne said, reaching for the bottle and giving it a whirl.

This was not happening in my house, I thought sarcastically as the realization came over me that the bottle could land on _anyone._ I looked up at Matthew, who was watching the bottle spin, letting out a sign of relief when the bottle pointed at Josh.

"Lucky me," he said, grabbing his girlfriend by the hand and dragging her to the closet on the other side of the room.

"This should be interesting," Matthew said as he pushed the timer on his watch, "Countdown starts now."

We sat there and watched the movie as we waited for his watch to go off. This really was not as fun as I thought it was going to be. Mandie appointed herself the official "go getter", who would go get the couples out of the closet when the time was up. The bottle continued to be passed around, several people going into the closet for their seven minutes. I just sat there, worried about whether or not they would come out alive.

They really had no idea.

Finally it was my turn. Mandie pushed the bottle towards me, excited look on her face, "Your turn Miss Addams."

I let out a long breathe that I hadn't realized I had been holding and reached a shaky hand to the bottle. I paused, looking up at my friends around me. Everyone has had so much to drink, half of the people in the room weren't even paying attention, others giving the new movie all the attention. Matthew was looking at me, biting his full lip and nodding at me, "Go on."

"Here goes nothing," I said, twirling the bottle and watching it spin. It continued to spin, making me dizzy as it did so, my mind having trouble focusing on it because of the alcohol.

It started to slow down, making my heart race, wondering who it would land on. I watched it move slower, stopping as it went around, pointing towards Matthew. I felt my sharp intake of breath as it slowed, coming to a stop. _Yes._

My neighbor cleared his throat, making me jump in my seat and realizing how scared to death I was to go in that _closet. _

My eyes widened as the bottle began to spin again, quicker this time, without anyone touching it. It spun out of control, stopping suddenly and pointing to _him _instead.

_Shit._

"Oh giiiiiiiiirl," Mandie giggled, grabbing my hand and jerking me to my feet. I glanced over at Matthew, seeing the confusion on his face, and the disappointment. My eyes then went to the figure sitting beside him who hadn't moved from his place on the couch.

"Go on, Tate," Josh urged from the other side of the table.

_Tate. _

Shit. Fear engrossed me as I realized what was happening. My brain screamed at me to stop the game, but Mandie was pushing me towards my neighbor and he was standing up from the couch. And I couldn't look like a complete idiot. They'd all think I was crazy if…if…

But he was taking my hand, leading me to the closet, gripping me tightly. He was cold but he was touching me. There was no way…was there?

I stepped inside, feeling him close the door behind us and turn to me, lacing my fingers in his as I tried to pull away from him.

"Please don't fight me," he said into the darkness.

"Tate. Your – your name is Tate," I stammered, backing away from him until I bumped into the wall behind me. I was trapped in here. He blocked my way to the door. There was no way I could run if I needed to.

I felt him move closer to me, leaning closer to me until he whispered in my ear, "Good job. Does it scare you?"

I felt my heart racing faster, threatening to beat out of my chest, "Nu-no."

"Are you sure?" he asked, tracing a finger down my cheek slowly.

I shivered under his cold touch, ashamed at how my body was starting to respond in the dark, "Positive."

"Why are you shivering?"

"I'm cold, that's all," I insisted, trying to press myself closer to the wall.

He let go of my hand, "How do you think I got into your basement?"

Was he trying to scare the shit out of me?

"You-you have a key."

"They change the locks every time a new owner moves in," he said.

"I don't believe you."

"What about your iPod?"

My throat went dry, making it hard for me to respond, "How did you know about that?"

I felt him lean in closer to me, placing his hands on either side of my head and whispering in my ear, "Because I was there."

_Impossible._

"There's no way."

"I'm not stupid, Josie. I know that you have figured out what's going on here. I didn't want to tell you because I have this…_thing_ for you. I didn't want to scare you off."

"Are you saying that you…you…that I'm right? That you are a…a…."

The lights started flickering then, fast, off and on, off and on. He was inches away from my face, cocking his head to the side as it flashed, scaring me, "Finish it."

"Ghost."

The lights stopped flickering, leaving us in darkness again.

"But how, how can you…"

"Touch you?" he asked, trailing one of his hands down from the wall, pushing one of my braids behind my shoulder and giving it a sharp tug.

I nodded, unable to say anything else, terrified. I wanted answers. I had so many questions for him. But my body was shivering again, my knees growing weak as his hand flowed down my body, stopping at my waist and gripping me. My stomach twisted in knots as I was frozen in the darkness.

"I don't know," he said.

The silence that filled the room was deafening. I was trapped in a closet with a ghost. One that had been watching me while I slept, playing games with my brother, messing with the objects in my home. I'd seen enough scary movies to know this was not good position to be in.

"Maybe we should go back out there," I suggested.

"Maybe we should do what we came in here to do," he said, the lights flickering back on for a second, enough for me to see the devious look on his face, before going off again. "Are you scared now?" he asked, cupping my face with his free hand and caressing my lips with his finger.

"Yes," I breathed.

He kissed me then, lips brushing over mine softly, his hand letting go of my braid and moving to tangle in the hair near my head. I wasn't prepared for that, the softness of his lips, expecting to be lying dead on the floor of the closet by this point. I felt my hands reach up to steady myself as his kiss deepened, grasping for his shirt so I wouldn't fall to the ground. He pushed his body up against me, mouth greedily moving against my lips, his knee forcing my legs apart so he could rest it there, giving me somewhere to land when my feet gave out on me. He moaned into my mouth when I fell against him, his hand tracing downward to play against the hem of my dress. His kisses moved along my jawline and down my neck, tracing his tongue along my collar bone as I whimpered underneath him. I ran my hands up his chest and into his hair, wrapping my fingers into it as he continued to ravish my body with kisses.

As he slipped his hand under my dress, I heard Mandie open the door, "Time's up guys."

The door slammed shut violently, muffling her words. I heard her grabbing the doorknob and twisting it, only moving in her hands, not giving underneath her pushes. "Guys!?" she exclaimed frantically from the other side and continuing to try to open the door.

But Tate's hand was caressing my leg, moving softly across my skin, pushing the fabric of my dress higher. I couldn't think here in the blackness, the smell and feel of this male in the room with me, working with the alcohol to fog my brain. Somehow the small space was heating up, his cold fingers against me confusing my skin as it mingled with the warmth coming from my body. It felt so good.

"Tate," I groaned as his hand began to move harder up my thigh, fingers pressing into the side of my body. He moved his knee against me, clearing all fear and worries about ghosts and monsters from my brain and replacing them with this desperate need to lose myself in the hard body pressing against mine.

I ran one of my hands down his chest, feeling the hard muscles working there as he grasped me. I stopped my hand at his pants, lifting his shirt enough to run my finger along the inside of his jeans.

In the distance I could hear other voices at the door, banging on it and trying to pry it open, to let us out.

Part of me screamed to stop, begged me to open my eyes, remember where I was, who I was with.

But I was grasping at Tate's belt, some otherworldly force helping me undo it, helping me unbutton and zip his pants so I could continue to tangle my other hand in his hair. I pushed the front of his jeans downward, playing my finger along the soft fabric of his boxers.

"Shit Josie," he whispered into my neck, breathe cold as it ran over me.

"What is going on here?!" I heard my father scream, slamming the door behind him in the other room.

"Nooooo," I complained, leaning back against the wall and hearing him running off my friends.

I could feel Tate's hand stop moving, pushing off the wall and away from me, muttering obscenities as the door of the closet flew open.

My father flipped on the lights, showering my sensitive pupils in the blinding florescent.

"I am very disappointed in you."

_That's it? _I forced one eye open and put my hand up over it to shield some of the light. Tate was gone. Thank goodness.

"I _said_ I'm disappointed in you," he repeated, crossing his arms and glaring at me from the doorway.

I took a few deep breathes, steadying myself on my feet and gazing at the floor, "I-uh- I'm sorry Dad."

"You don't even know how angry I am right now."

"I have an idea," I said, brushing past him and into the living room, straightening my clothes as I went.

"You are going to clean up this mess and then go to your room, do you understand me? You are not going to leave this house for the rest of the weekend so you can cancel your Halloween plans tomorrow night. And any plans you have for the next week!"

"Dad!"

"Don't even try to change my mind. This is ridiculous," he growled, knocking the Ouija board off the table and into the floor. He stomped off in the other direction and I didn't move until I heard the slamming of his bedroom door. My legs gave out underneath me as the reality of tonight set in. What a dangerous situation I had put myself in by going into the closet. Tears rose up in my eyes and ran down my cheeks as I crumpled to the floor.


	4. Chapter 4

_I felt him struggle under my hands, even through the rubber of the suit that covered my body. I could feel it pressing against me and restraining me. I pressed his head further under the water, determined to drown him, end his life. He was struggling so hard in the water, even though I was sure it was seeping into his throat as he tried to screamed. _

My eyes shot open, seeing Tate standing over me, that dark serious look playing over his face. His hand was on my mouth, encouraging me to be quiet.

"Don't scream."

I grabbed his hand, trying to pry it from my face so I could breathe. It was getting so hard to breathe. The nightmare, now his hand, stopping my breath, my heart racing in my chest so hard it was painful.

This was it. _He's going to kill me._

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said, grasping at my hands to stop them from attacking him. He crawled up on top of me, sitting his knees on either sides of my waist, hand still on my mouth. His other hand grabbed my hands and moved them over my head, pressing them to the pillow.

I continued to struggle under him, trying to buck him off me as I raised my hips off the bed. Desperately trying to get away from him so I could scream. Run. Get away.

"This isn't what I imagined our first time in bed would be like," he laughed, leaning down and moving his hand enough to kiss me, swallowing my screams down his throat. He pulled back from me and put his hand back over my mouth, laughing at me, "Can you please stop screaming? You were having a nightmare."

I stopped struggling for a minute, looking up at him and trying to read his face. It was twisted in this big boyish smile, gazing down at me and laughing. _This isn't funny. _I furrowed my eyebrows, reminding myself that I did just wake up from a dream. A horrible dream. And I would have screamed, probably signaling Dad to come and check on me. Running off Tate when we really needed to talk.

I nodded.

He removed his hand from my mouth, "If I wanted to kill you, I would have already."

"You're insane," I said, trying to move my wrists out from under his grasp and failing miserably.

"You have no idea," he said, face growing serious as he lowered his lips to mine. He kissed me deeply and ground his hips against me, causing a needy mewing sound to escape me. He moved his lips along my cheek, burying them in my ear and whispering, "I wanted to talk to you."

"This is a little more than talking," I said, my breathing increasing with every movement of his mouth.

He pulled himself off of me, letting go of my wrists and sitting down on the bed beside me, legs crossed, watching me. Watching me like a lion watches his prey.

I sat up, moving my legs to mirror his and biting my lip, "Do you want to listen to some music?"

I heard my IPod click as if someone was using it and heard Nirvana begin playing throughout the room. Tate smiled at me and reached out to take my hand.

"Show off."

"You already know, why hide it?" he asked, running his finger along my palm and up onto my wrist.

He lowered his eyebrows and opened his mouth to say something but I jerked my hand away from him, tucking it under my legs.

"Hey, don't be ashamed of your battle scars, I have them too," he said, raising his arm up to show me the scared marks across his wrist.

"I don't normally…no one knows."

"Fuck everyone else, Josie. Or don't, actually," he said, smiling at me, proud of himself.

I glared back at him, "That's not funny."

"Tough audience."

"So how'd you die?" I asked.

"Blunt much?"

"I'm as blunt as much as you are on the edge of insanity."

"I was shot," he explained, "Why'd you cut yourself."

"My mom died in a car wreck six months ago and I couldn't handle it. That's the first time I ever…cut myself like that. Now I just listen to angsty music and wear a lot of black. I took a bunch of pills and ended up in the hospital. My dad freaked out. I figured I should stop. Grow up."

"That's no fun."

"What, almost dying?" I asked.

"No, growing up."

I paused, considering his words, "That's something you will never do, huh."

"Not as far as I can tell."

"How do you feel about having a relationship with a living girl?"

His eyes opened wide, "Is that what this is?"

"You tell me, you've been the one stalking me for close to a week now," I said.

"I prefer to call it admiring."

I raised an eyebrow, not impressed.

"How do I feel? Most of the time I don't feel anything. I just wander around here until something catches my attention."

"And I've caught your attention?"

"Like you wouldn't believe," he said, leaning over and kissing the hollow of my neck.

"Did you really use to live here?"

"Yes," he breathed against my skin, sending chills down my spine, "I didn't lie to you about that. Me, my mom, and my siblings. My mother and sister still live next door."

"What happened to the other siblings?"

"My brother was killed by this jackass that my mom was sucking off."

"Sounds awful."

He brought his hands up to cup my face, moving his face up to mine and looking me in the eye, "He got what was coming to him."

He kissed me again, leaving me unable to answer his questions. He held my face tight in his hands, one of them moving up to tangle in my hair, delving farther into my mouth with his tongue. Searching. Exploring. I ran my hands up his arms as I worked my way up to his face. I moved up on my knees and ran my hand through his hair, pulling it backwards, and lowered my mouth to his neck.

"Shit," he whispered, hands pulling me closer to him as I worked my tongue against the soft skin. I ran it up the side of his neck and took his earlobe into my mouth. He groaned and ran his hand down my body, sneaking one underneath my camisole.

I felt my body responding under his touch. The whole room seemed to raise in temperature, his cold skin the only thing that grounded me in the moment. He kissed me, full and hard, like he was trying to drown himself in me. I heard the music on my IPod grow louder, the lock on my door click shut. He raised up above me and pushed my body back on the bed. A small surprised sound escaped me as he became braver, raising his hands higher and caressing me underneath my top.

I ran my hands down his body in response, gripping his ass in my hands and grinding him into me, determined to finish what we had started the night before.

"I've been thinking about this, Josie, about what I want to do to you," he said, pulling himself up on his hands and gazing down at me.

"What's that?"

He leaned over, running his mouth along my ear, "I want to make you purr like a little kitten."

I moved my hands up around his neck, keeping him where he was and breathing against his ear, challenging him, "Then do it."

He growled, low in his chest and pulled my shirt up over my head, throwing it to the floor. His frantic kisses moved down my body and brought my breathe sharp and quick through my mouth. I laid my head back on the pillow, hands shoved in his curls as he caressed me with his hands, his mouth.

"You were soaking wet last night, Josie, my jeans were dripping with it when I left," he whispered, pulling my pajama bottoms down my legs and slipping them off me. Tate crawled slowly back up my legs, planting soft kisses along them, making room for himself between them as he drove me crazy. I closed my eyes, letting the hot feeling take me over, pull me close to the edge of oblivion as I trembled underneath him. My breathing became erratic, escaping from my mouth in a serious of small sounds, him moving against me, sending spurts of pleasure throughout my body.

"Tate, I'm going to, oh god," I moaned, grasping for his hair but he pulled away from me, not allowing me to continue.

"Not yet, my love," he said, eyes dark and wanton as he stood up on his knees and peeled his t-shirt from his body. I watched him work the shirt over his head, muscles working under his pale skin as he tossed it to the side and leaned back down over me.

I grabbed his waist, pushing myself lower underneath him until I could run my tongue along the trail of light hair that ran down his stomach, slipping it underneath his jeans until he gripped my hair, "Don't tease me."

"I think you've got it coming," I said, moving my hands to undo the button of his ripped jeans and slip them and his boxers down his body in one swift movement. He sprang free, hard and ready for me when I wrapped my hands along the large circumference of him. He gasped above me and began to move against me. I kissed him along his thigh, nipping at him roughly as I went.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," he moaned, reaching down to grab me by the hair and pull me back up the bed.

"Don't you like it?" I asked, feigning innocence when I looked into his eyes.

His mouth was hanging open, eyes fluttering open and coming back from the edge as I had done earlier, "I will bite you back, be careful."

"I don't believe you. You said you weren't going to hurt me."

I could see the indecision playing across his face as he shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh, "I did say that."

"You don't have to stick with it if you don't want to. Well, not right now. I'd rather you not-" I couldn't finish my sentence due to him kissing me again, rougher than before, taking my lower lip into his mouth and biting it hard. I could feel the skin break, sharp pain bringing a gasp from me, but bringing an intense moan from Tate as he sucked at my lip.

"Ugggnff," I mumbled, digging my nails into his back as he lowered himself onto me, pressing himself against me.

He let go of my mouth, kissing down my neck and taking hold of the soft sensitive skin in the hollow of my throat and allowing me to speak, "Please, Tate."

He obliged, kissing me passionately and he pushed himself inside of me. He continued to caress me with his hands as he moved, slowly at first, easing back and forth, trying to accommodate himself to me as I moaned underneath him, nails scraping against his skin again.

"Can you feel me?" he asked.

"Oh god yes."

He sped up the pace, breathe suddenly hot against my neck as he buried his face there. I was a hot mess underneath him, moaning and struggling to breathe as he continued to slam into me. I could see him biting his lip, faltering in motions and gripping the headboard to steady himself.

"Shiiiit," he breathed, grasping me by the back of the head, his fingers tangled in my hair as I began to drown in those big brown, almost black, pools of eyes.

"Tate," I moaned, a warning almost, followed by a series of more incoherent noises as I felt my body give in to the sensation, waves of pleasure ripping through me, spasms gripping me and making me scream out.

I felt him let go of my hair, covering my mouth so no one could hear. He closed his eyes, mouth falling open as he shuddered above me and removed himself from my body, "Nnnuggggghhhhh."

He rolled off me, laying back on the bed and staring at the ceiling, "Wow, it's been so long…but I don't think I've ever. Jesus, Josie that was amazing.

"How-how was that even possible?" I asked and turned over on my side to face him.

"I don't know," he said, turning over on his side and propping himself up on his elbow.

"So what now? You going to go back to stalking me in the shadows?"

"Not a chance," he responded, reaching out to caress my cheek.

I closed my eyes, enjoying the cool feel of his fingers on my flushed face, "So, Dad grounded me last night."

"What a punishment. Guess you will have to spend the whole day locked in your bedroom."

"Guess so," I said, opening my eyes and smiling over at him.

"She does smile," he said sarcastically.

"When it's worth it."

"Then it must be my lucky day," he smiled, leaning over and kissing me softly on the lips. I kissed him back, feeling an unfamiliar feeling fluttering in my stomach, something I hadn't felt since middle school. It was like no one else even existed anymore, only Tate and I, here in this moment, our lips moving against each other, out tongues dancing. He was being gentle with me again, back to that sweetness that made him seem so trustable. He could change back and forth so fast, it was kind of scary the way his moods changed. _He's a teenage ghost._

I smiled again at him when he pulled back, feeling a blush rising up into my cheeks, "You have the darkest eyes I've ever seen. They're almost black."

"I guess that goes with my damned soul."

"I think they're beautiful. They're my favorite color."

He was so cute, laying there looking at me with a boyish grin playing over his face. He looked so innocent and so _real. _It was hard for me to imagine that he wasn't alive and breathing, able to move things without as much as a movement.

_Move things._

"Did you throw a knife at me yesterday?"

The smile that had stretched from ear to ear faded, replaced with one I hadn't seen before. It was angry, dangerous. "What?" he demanded, making me feel like I needed to get up and run from the room. He was terrifying.

"I'll take that as a no."

"When did this happen?" he asked.

"Yesterday morning when I was helping my dad take down that awful wallpaper."

"I'll kill him," Tate growled, starting to get up from the bed. "Again," he mumbled under his breath, almost incoherent to my ears.

I grabbed his arm, pulling him back down, "What!? Who?"

"Chad, maybe Patrick," he explained, that scary look still on his face, "I'm sure it was one of them angry that you were taking down the precious wallpaper."

"Is…is that a ghost?"

"Don't act as if that's a foreign idea, Josie. I will make sure he leaves you alone. No one is going to hurt you as long as I'm around. No one."

I took his hand in mine, trying to change the subject, put the smile back on his face, "So, um, Halloween is in a couple of days. Would you want to go do something?"

It worked.

He laughed, low and sexy, "You have no idea how much I would love to get out and do something."

"I'm hoping my dad will let up on the grounding by then."

"If not we can sneak out."

"Don't tempt me."

"That will be your only choice unless you just want to hang around here with me for the next year," he stated.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't leave this damned property unless it's Halloween."

"Are you serious?" I asked, shocked at the admission, "You're stuck here?"

He nodded, "Yea it gets pretty boring."

"What do you want to do on Tuesday?"

"Whatever you want to do," he responded.

"I think you should choose, seeing as you haven't been out of the house in a year."

He reached up to brush a stray strand of hair out of my face, leaving his hand against my face, rubbing it with his finger, "All I can think of right now is loving you."

Tate leaned into me, kissing me gently and sitting up from his laying position. He laid me back onto the bed carefully, continuing to kiss me until our kisses grew deeper and he trailed them down my neck.

* * *

I emerged from my bedroom hours later, ridiculous grin displayed on my face for the world to see. My brother was running down the hall towards me, excitement playing over his face. He must have had a good day too.

"Sissy! Sissy! Can you help me and Daddy with the swing set?"

"What swing set?"

"We build it!" he exclaimed, motioning out the window. I walked over to it and looked out over our backyard. My dad was down there, hammer going at the pieces in his hand. I could tell he was getting pissed off.

"Sure just let me get a fast shower okay?"

That was all the answer he needed before he said, "Okay" and ran back down the hallway. I showered quickly, memories of Tate's soft touch as I ran the soap over my body. This was a weird situation I found myself in. Just yesterday I was scared for my life, worried that a ghost was going to kill me every time I went around the corner. Now I was falling in love with one. Unfortunately, there were other ones in the house, less friendly dead people from what I could tell.

I shut off the shower and ran back into my bedroom to get dressed. Tate was nowhere to be found so I headed outside to my family.

I shut the door behind me and walked over to where my dad was sitting on the grass, an irritated look on his face.

I plopped down beside him, "How's it coming?"

"There are too many pieces, Josie. There's too much missing."

He held up the instructions for me to see and I looked them over, "Hmmm." I reached through the pieces, looking for one that matched the picture in front of me. "Ah ha!" I exclaimed, picking up a piece and handing it to my father.

"You're an angel," he said, taking it from me and putting it along the other the other one, raising the hammer and slamming it down on the nail.

"Remind me not to make him angry," I heard from behind me. I froze and struggled not to look behind me at the sound of Tate's voice.

"Hehehehehehehehe," my brother giggled, looking over my shoulder and pointing, "Tate so silly."

I took the opportunity to follow his finger over to the house, heart pounding as my eyes settled on him. He was sitting on the porch, watching us. He winked at me but looked past me to address my brother again, "Josie helping you build your awesome swing set?"

I looked away quickly, hoping no one noticed me seeing him.

"Yeah!" Dillon exclaimed, grabbing my father's shirt and tugging at it. "Look Daddy!" he said, pointing again to where Tate sat.

My dad looked up at the house, shaking his head, "That crazy imagination of yours, kiddo."

"He's there, Daddy! Don't you see him Josie?!"

I looked back over to where he was pointing, settling my eyes on Tate again. He waved at me and I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling, "No, I don't see anything."

Tate curved his lips into a devious smile.

"That's because there's no one there," my dad laughed, reaching over to tickle my brother. Dillon giggled, falling back on the grass while my dad continued to make him squirm. I took the chance to shoot a glance at Tate, who was laughing as he watched. His eyes met mine and grew dark, snaking his tongue out to run over his lips, pulling at lower things in my body. I could feel the wind pick up suddenly, swirling around me and moving my hair.

"Whoa the wind got crazy," I heard my dad say as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

I tore my eyes away from the black eyes and back to my dad, "Yea, crazy, huh."

We continued to work on the swing set until it was complete, my dad completely oblivious to the stranger who was watching us work.

When we were done, my dad said he was making tacos for dinner so him and my brother ran towards the house, eager to make them. I told them I was going to enjoy the sunset outside and they didn't argue, too excited to be spending some time together to be worried about me as they went inside.

I sat down beside Tate and furrowed my eyebrows, "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Show yourself to some people and not others?"

He shrugged, "I don't know."

"You suck at being dead, you know that?"

"Why's that?" he asked.

"Because you can't explain anything to me. I have so many questions."

"I apologize I haven't been more of a help. I've not had to explain my condition to anyone before."

That was an interesting way to put it, "So what did you do before you died? Like what kind of things did you like?"

"Same kinds of things I like now, Josie. Girls, brooding, being overly emotional, and grunge music. Birds."

"Birds? That's random."

He looked at me seriously, "They can fly away from anything. Just spread their wings and there they go. Me? I've always found myself stuck."

"Me too," I said, nodding in agreement, understanding what it was like to feel lost and confused, stuck in life.

He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer to him, "I could really get use to you being here with me. Things were so dark and depressing before you got here."

"I don't see how my normally sour mood can make anyone happy."

"You're not sour, Josie. You just relax when no one else is around. You forget I've seen you by yourself. You're a different person."

I leaned into his arm, sighing and being completely open with him, "That's really creepy, Tate. But you're right. Sometimes I put on this façade around others, being overly broody and refusing to have fun. It's easier than letting people in and getting hurt. I've been hurt too many times…lost too many people."

"I will never hurt you."

"You keep saying that. Are you trying to convince yourself or me?"

He didn't answer immediately, thinking about what he would say before he answered me, "I'm tired of hurting people I love…people in general."

"I hear ya, sometimes I can be quite the bitch."

"I haven't noticed," he said sarcastically, leaning down to plant a kiss on my forehead.

I smacked him playfully on the knee, "Well I'd better get inside and grab some dinner. Find me after?"

He nodded, standing up and pulling me to my feet with him. He ran his hand through my hair and smiled down at me, "You are so beautiful."

I felt myself blushing, looking away from him to try to hide it. When I looked back up, he was looking behind me intently, like there was something there. I looked behind me and didn't see anything. I turned back around and he was gone.

"Shit," I grumbled, smiling to myself and realizing I'd fell for that trick again.

After we ate dinner, I went back up into my room, expecting to see Tate waiting for me. I shut the door behind me and looked around, disappointed when he didn't show up. I pulled my pajamas out of my drawer and looked around me before changing clothes, wondering if he was watching me where I couldn't see him. I tried to change slowly, casually, just in case he was, my hands shaky as I slipped the clothing off of me. I pulled on my pajama bottoms and camisole, still alone in the room. I flipped on my bedside light and turned off the main one in the room. Walking back to my bed, I noticed something I hadn't before. There was a single piece of paper sitting there on my pillow, scribbles going across the page. _I've been locked inside your heart shaped box for weeks. Love, Tate_

I smiled, sitting the note on my bedside table and crawling into bed. I made myself comfortable under the covers, sinking down under them and closing my eyes. In the dark silences of the night, I felt my covers move and someone crawl in behind me. I knew who I wanted it to be, but I could still feel the fear stabbing at me as I whispered in the darkness, "Tate?"

"Yes," he answered and snuggled up behind me, wrapping one of his arms around me and stroking my hair with his fingers until I fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

"You had sex with Tate!" Mandie exclaimed as we walked to our first period class the next day.

I threw my hand over her mouth, frowning at her, "Shut up!"

"Well you did," she said, prying my hand off, "It's written all over your face. That smile? It's not faltered since you walked into the school. You're freaking everyone out."

"Do I have a weird smile?"

"No, but you don't share it. Ever," she said, leaning into me and whispering, "Is he is sexy without his clothes as he was in that black t-shirt on Saturday night?"

"That's for me to know and you to never find out," I said, following her into the classroom.

"Hey," Matthew said as we sat down beside him.

I tried not to smile, to act normal, but it wouldn't happen. So I smiled at him, "Hey, how was the rest of your weekend?"

"Good, and yours?" he asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow at me.

"Decent, I was grounded for most of it. Probably still am. I will have to wait and see how Dad feels tonight."

"I was worried about that," he said as the teacher walked into the classroom and demanding our attention.

We both became quiet as the teacher began to drone on about the history of the United States. I found myself doodling on my paper, drawing hearts and writing out Tate's name. Then I'd mark them all out so no one else could see. But he was all I could think about, questions buzzing throughout my mind as I was bored in the cold hard set. I kept glancing at the clock, but it only made the time go faster. I wanted to go home. Wanted to find Tate and ask him all about his past, share more of mine with him. _Maybe if I threw up I go home…_

But I toughed it up, passing notes back and forth with Mandie when the teacher wasn't looking, ignoring the frown on Matthew's face when he passed them back and forth. I could tell he was dying to ask me what the smile was all about. It was gone by the time lunch came around though, boredom had taken all the life out of my body. My lunch class was the only one I didn't socialize in so it was absolutely painful until we were released and I caught up with Anne in the hallway, following her into the lunch line without a word until we reached the food.

"Mandie said you had sex with Tate, is that true?"

"Really!? Is nothing sacred?" I asked, slopping my pathetic "hamburger steak" down on my plate and relishing in the disgusted look on Anne's face.

"No, not between friends. I can't believe you didn't tell me! Does Matthew know?"

"No, and he doesn't need to. It's none of his business."

She shook her head, "Dude, he's really into you."

"Well he's going to have to get over it," I shrugged.

"Wow, this neighbor of yours must be good in bed. If I'd have told you that a few days ago, you'd have flipped."

"It's more than that," I objected, "He gets me."

"Uh huh," she said, handing her money to the lunch lady.

I followed behind her, giving up my money, and we walked into the lunch room.

"How are you going to tell him?"

"I'm not."

"You have to tell him something," she said, dropping her voice lower as we neared the table.

"I don't have to tell him anything. He's not even told me he likes me."

"It's a well known fact."

"One that he hasn't told me," I hissed under my breath as I pulled out my chair and sat down.

"So Math class was awful today," Matthew said, eyeing me as I sat down.

"Yea, I would have rather had my eyes ripped out of my head," I said.

"Isn't that what happened while we were in there?" he asked, smiling at me.

"Possibly."

"Mr. Wheadon likes to torcher his students. I hear that he kidnaps them and reads math problems to him until their brains explode," Josh said as he joined us at the table, giving Anne a kiss on the head before he sat down.

"I heard he makes them solve equations until their fingers bleed,"Mandie chimed in.

I laughed, "I hear he carves mathematical formulas into their bodies in the basement."

"Ew," Mandie responded.

"That was a good one," Matthew said, clearly disturbed by my suggestion, but continuing on with the game, "I heard…"

I tuned him out because I could see Anne glaring at me from the other end of the table. She moved her eyes over to Matthew and back to me, widening them as if demanding me to tell him something. I shook my head and dug into my food. If he brought it up, we'd talk about it then. Until then, I was going to savor every moment of my meat eating habits, much to the disgust of my friends.

* * *

I looked up at the clock on the wall during computer class to see how much longer I had to stand this torcher.

_Twenty minutes. Ugggg._

I'd already completed my assignment and the teacher had left the room for a minute. So I pulled up the internet, trying to find something to do to bide my time. _Tate_, I thought, typing his full name into the search bar and pressing enter on the keyboard. Several results popped up and I scrolled through them, none of them seeming to match what I was looking for. More information on why and how he died. Maybe the records were sealed since he was underage? Maybe they hadn't given the media a lot of information on his murder. I added the city and state where we lived and hit enter.

My heart dropped when the results popped up on the screen. My hands started trembling, fear gripping at my heart as I clicked on the first link: Local Boy kills 15 classmates in Horrendous school Shooting.

There he was: a picture of Tate looking sweet and innocent with a lengthy article about what happened. I felt the tears swelling up in my eyes, my vision blurring and making it hard for me to read. I heard Matthew's words ringing in my ear from the Halloween party: _Guy set his mother's lover on fire and then killed 15 students at our high school in the 90s. _Tate's voice echoing quickly behind it: _My brother was killed by this jackass that my mom was sucking off. He got what was coming to him._ My nightmares flashed through my brain, finally making since. They'd been happening since I first saw him, somehow transferring over to me in my sleep. They were coming from him.

The tears finally started streaming down my face, my breath coming in hyperventilated bursts. My left hand gripped the table in front of me and my other was still frozen on the mouse, "Oh shit."

"Shhh Josie or you're going to get us both in trouble," I heard Mandie say, pausing her game of WOW on the computer and grabbing my arm.

I didn't move, couldn't move, my eyes focused on the screen before me and my body threatening to send me to the floor in uncontrollable sobs.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" she asked, probably seeing my uncontainable reaction to what I was reading.

I shook my head, unable to answer her for fear of the screams rising in my throat that I was trying to hold back.

"What are you looking at- _Ho-ly shit._"

Finally I looked over to her, raising my finger to my lips and begging her to be quiet, "Shut up."

She leaned over closer to the screen, taking in the picture of Tate and grabbing the mouse out from under my hand, "Did you read this!?"

"I'm trying but my eyes won't focus," I whispered, wiping my face with the arm of my sleeve without streaking my makeup all over my face. I was sure I already looked like a mess.

She scrolled down through the article, reading bits of it to me quietly as she went, "Seventeen year old Tate Langdon was shot down in his home…he set Larry Harvey _on fire_…killing him before he moved on to his next target…_Westfield High school…_killing 15 students and injuring more…SWAT team broke into the home and tried to apprehend him….pulled a gun on them before being shot to death…Jesus H Christ, Josie."

"Print it."

"_Nineteen ninety four, _Josie, how is that possible?" she asked, looking at me with confusion.

"I said print it."

She clicked the print button and then clicked the backwards arrow. She glowered at my search terms and clicked on a different link. Another article popped up on the screen, more detail this time, with accounts of the other students present at the time of the shooting.

"Print it."

"Josie…"

"Do it or I will."

She clicked the print button again, looking at me with concern on her face, "You need to tell me what's going on."

"Google Larry Harvey."

She didn't argue this time, pulling up several articles about his death and printing them off for me. I could see the terror on her face as she did, continuing to try to get me to explain how it was possible that Tate looked exactly like he did in this picture taken over ten years ago. Asking me how he could possibly be living next door to me when he was dead. I begged to her to keep it to herself and promised I would tell her about it later, when I'd figured things out. She swore that she wouldn't tell and I really hoped that she wouldn't. People would think we were both certifiably crazy and I didn't want to be thrown in a mental hospital. As the bell rang, I grabbed the stack of papers off the printer and shoved them in my bag, trying to get my tears under control before any of my other friends could see.

* * *

"Hey honey," my dad said as I walked into the house, oblivious to the foul mood that had settled into my body as the bus dropped me off at my house. Murder House.

"Don't sweet talk me," I growled, flashing angry eyes at him as I tried to walk past him.

He grabbed me by the arm, "Have you been crying?"

I jerked away from him, "Don't touch me."

"Did I do something?"

"I don't know, did you?"

He looked at me, confusion playing over his face, "I give up, what's wrong."

"Did you know about all the people who have died in this house before we moved in?"

"What?"

"The people that _died _here, Dad," I said, crossing my arms and noticing the guilty look that crossed his face.

"Well…I had an idea…"

"You had an _idea!?_ I know the person that sold you the house told you something. It's the law."

"She told me about the previous tenets that lived here dying…I had to look up the rest," he explained, admitting that he had been keeping it from me all this time.

"How could you not tell me?!"

"I didn't think it was information you needed to know. I know that you have a tendency to have bad dreams when you hear about stuff like that and after your mother…"

I let an exasperated, "Uhgg," come out of my mouth as I twirled around and stomped off. _I should just tell him everything. About Tate. About this house. About the ghosts. Then he'd move us. Let me go back home to be with my family. With my friends. My old school._

"Josie, we need to talk about this," he called behind me.

"Do not follow me," I spat, continuing on until I reached my destination. I threw open the door of the basement, knowing it would be a place where I could scream my head off and not be heard. I slammed the door behind me and flipped on the light. After I reached the bottom of the steps, I dug into my messenger bag and retrieved the stack of papers I printed off during class. I slung my bag across the room and paced around the large room, searching through the corners for my dead boyfriend.

Finding nothing, I opened my mouth and screamed, "Tate!"

It took him a minute but I finally saw him, creeping out of the shadows with a furrowed brow, "You're in a shitty mood."

"Shut the fuck up," I spat.

"You call me out to tell me to shut up? Really, Josie? What were you and your dad fighting about? It must have been bad," he stepped forward, reaching out to touch my cheek but I stepped back.

"Don't touch me, you murdering piece of shit."

His face fell, telling me everything that I needed to know. He remembered the murders, remembered how he died. He'd left it out, in essence, lying to me.

"What-what are you talking about?"

"This!" I exclaimed, throwing the stack of papers at him that I held in my hand.

"What is that?' he asked, leaning down to pick up the closest paper, the one with his face on it and the first article I'd pulled up.

"Don't act like you don't know. You killed that man, Tate! _Burned him._ You went on a shooting spree in the high school!"

He crumbled the piece of paper in his hand, "I was going to tell you."

"You were?" I yelled, throwing my hands up in the air, "When? After I told you about the dreams I was having? Shooting up a school. Burning some man. Oh wait, I did tell you those things. And you didn't say._ Anything_."

I paused, the realization hitting me. "Did you try to drown someone!?" I demanded, pointing my finger at him, "Because I dreamed of that too! But it would have been after you died. So you've been killing while you've been here. In. This. House."

"Josie-"

"Where you going to kill me too?" I asked, my lip quivering and eyes pooling with tears again.

He furrowed his brows and took a step towards me, "No, I would never-"

"Hurt me, I know. That's what you say. But you're a _psychopath,_Tate. You can't possibly care about me. Not really."

"But I do. I-"

"You've been using me all this time! Using me to get your dead rocks off until you were done and…and…" I couldn't finish, sobs taking me over as I slumped against the hard wall, sliding down it until I hit the floor. I heard him walking over to me quietly, squatting down and muttering my name. I pushed him off me, jumping up to put some distance between us and walking to the other side of the room.

I heard him spouting profanities behind me as I turned around. He started hitting himself in the head with his fists, pulling at his hair, and screaming over and over. He was freaking out. Acting crazy.

I backed away from me, closer to the stairs, "Tate, stop it. You're scaring me."

He threw his head up to look at me, tears streaming down his face, "Please don't hate me. I couldn't stand it."

"What are you talking about! How do you have any right to be upset right now?! You used me! You know I'm vulnerable and you took advantage of it!"

He ran his hands through his hair, "No. No. No. No. No. I wouldn't do that."

"But you did, Tate, you did," I said, quietly, trying to make the tears stop. I could see the tears continue to flow down his face, filling his brown eyes to the brim before they erupted over, grasping my heart with invisible hands and crushing it. Unable to stand it anymore, I turned around and marched up the door, slamming it behind me, and running away before he could beg me to stay.

I was so naïve for believing that he was a good person. _A good dead person, _I corrected myself. So stupid for thinking this was anything more than a piece of ass for him. He was like all the other boys I'd ever met. He didn't give a shit about me. He was a murderer and a liar.

And I loved him.

I shut the bedroom door behind me and threw myself on the bed, gut wrenching sobs coming over me as I cried into the comforter.

I didn't see or hear from Tate for the rest of the night.


	6. Chapter 6

"And what was the reason for the 13th amendment?" my history teacher asked, receiving no answer from the class.

I slumped down in my seat, hoping that I would just die right here and now. It would save me the trouble of going back home into that house. Save me from the possibility of dying there and being trapped inside of its creepy walls. With _him._

I'd layered on the make up extra thick that morning, using Halloween as an excuse to wear my black lipstick and dressing in all black. I clipped my purple and black horns into my hair and left without a word to my family. Dad didn't even try to talk to me. I'm sure it was because he could still see how upset I was. I'd walked into school that morning and gathered my books without saying a word to anyone there. My friends had been gathered in the hallway corner, all dressed up as much as the dress code would allow. I walked past them, barely acknowledging them. Mandie ran over to me, trying to talk to me and growing quiet as the tears crept up into my eyes again.

I jumped out of my thoughts when I heard the sound of the paper football landing on my desk. I frowned and looked around, my eyes settling on Matthew as he smiled at me and waved.

I frowned harder, causing him to widen his eyes and hold up his hands in an apologetic manner.

Picking up the paper, I unfolded it and read what was written on there.

_Where__'__s that beautiful smile you were donning yesterday._

I rolled my eyes, scribbling a note back: _It died, right along with my soul. _

I folded it back up, in a simple square instead of the fancy paper football and dropped it to the floor, scooting it across the aisle when the teacher wasn't looking.

He sent it back a few minutes later: _Josie, it__'__s Halloween! Cheer up!_

_Not that easy._

_Anything I can do?_

_Not unless you can perform magic._

_Sorry, I__'__m lacking in that department._

_Drugs or alcohol?_

_Can__'__t get ya drugs but I have some liquor in my car._

_Naughty boy._

_Ride home with me?_

_To your house?_

_Or yours._

_I think I__'__ll pass. I__'__d rather slit my wrists than go back there today._

_You can come over to my house and I can see if I can__'__t get your mind off whatever is bothering you._

I paused, considering my options. Matthew was a real boy, someone here and now. He could go places with me, see things. He was easy to get along with, funny, and very cute. He was _alive _and I think he was definitely hitting on me now. I could tell even more when I looked over at him, seeing him eying me with that look. Probably a bad idea.

I picked up my pencil to scribble a note back to him when my pencil decided to take on a mind of its own.

_I CANT BELIEVE I'M BACK IN THIS SHITTY SCHOOL AFTER ALL THIS TIME.  
_

Fuck.

Tate.

I erased the writing and finished what I was going to say: _We'll talk after school._

I sent it back to Matthew and flipped a few pages over in my notebook.

_What the hell are you doing here._

I let my hand stay on the pencil so it could flow freely across the paper and not attract any unwanted attention. _NOT HAPPY TO SEE ME?  
_

_Don't act so innocent._

_I'M NOT ACTING.  
_

_You're not innocent either you piece of shit._

_YOU'RE' MAKING MY BIG DICK HARD WITH THAT DIRTY MOUTH OF YOURS. YOU'D BETTER WATCH IT._

_Fuck you._

_ANYTIME BABY.  
_

Uggg. I didn't expect it to be so hard to be angry at him. I could hear his words in my head as I read them, sexy and sarcastic. See him in my head, casually leaning up against the wall and playfully running that mouth of his. I took a moment to steady myself, remind my brain why I was so pissed at him, before I wrote him back.

_What do you want._

_TO WISH YOU A HAPPY HALLOWEEN.  
_

_Congratulations, you've ruined my favorite holiday along with my life._

_DRAMATIC AREN'T YOU?  
_

_Sociopathic aren't you._

…_LOOK I KNOW YOU'RE PISSED AT ME AND YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE. BUT WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS._

_Talk to your dead friends._

_JOSIE PLEASE. I REALLY AM SORRY YOU HAD TO FIND OUT THAT WAY. I AM SORRY I NEVER TOLD YOU. I CARE ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS , MORE THAN MIND, AND I WANT TO MAKE IT RIGHT.  
_

I shook my head, ripping the paper out of the binder and wadding it up as the bell rang for next period.

It amazes me how quickly time passes when you just want it to slow down. How quickly a day flies by when you are dreading the end of it. Three o'clock came around faster than any other day since I'd moved to the school. I dragged my feet going to my locker, finding Matthew and Mandie there waiting for me.

"We're calling an intervention," Mandie said as I opened my locker and put up my books.

"You haven't been running your mouth have you?" I asked, hoping she didn't say anything about Tate to Matthew . I didn't need a bunch of people knowing about his history. I really wasn't even sure what I was going to tell her.

"No," she said and shook her head.

"We were thinking ice cream actually," Matthew said, putting his arm around me as we walked toward the back door.

"That sounds fattening."

"Like you have anything to worry about," Mandie said sarcastically.

"Maybe not. It probably would make me feel better."

I could feel the hairs raising up on the back of my neck as we pushed through the crowd and out into the parking lot. Looking up to see the reason for it as we crossed the parking lot to Matthew's car.

Tate was standing there, leaning against Matthew's old car and parked beside it was a familiar looking vehicle that was parked but still running. Something Tate had stolen I assumed. He had this angry look to his eyes as they settled on us, one that clearly showed that he was not happy. Not happy that there was another man's arm around me. He pushed up off of the old car and walked towards us, like a lion stalking it's prey, that terrifying look crossing his face again.

"Shit, Josie, it's Tate," I heard Mandie say and grab my arm. She was trembling as she moved closer to me, her body shaking as she saw him walking towards us. She still didn't know he wasn't in the realm of the living, but I was sure her reaction was from all the articles we had read.

I could see Matthew taking us in, seeing the fear crossing both of our eyes when he looked back over to the blonde haired boy that had stopped and was watching us.

"Hey man," Matthew said, removing his arm from me and walking over to where he stood, losing his smile.

"Matthew, don't," I begged, pulling myself behind him, Mandie clamped on my arm.

Tate glared at the taller boy, fists clenched at his side as he stood there, motionless.

"Did you do something to Josie?" Matthew demanded, oblivious to the danger that he was in. The boy in the parking lot with us was a _murderer. _

Tate's lips curved into a scheming smile, "Wouldn't you like to know."

"If you've hurt her, I swear man," he threatened, not finishing his sentence.

"Actually I did," Tate said, still smiling, trying to provoke Matthew farther as he leaned forward slightly, "And she liked it."

"You son of a bitch," Matthew growled, balling up his fist and lurching forward and slamming it across Tate's face, blood flying into the air.

"Nooooo!" I screamed, trying to pry myself away from Mandie and get to them.

"Don't go over there, Josie, please," she begged, holding on to me for dear life.

Tate threw his head back then, laughing like a hyena, like he'd never seen anything so funny in his life. Blood was streaming down from his broken lip, into his mouth and down his chin. This only made Matthew even madder, throwing his other fist at Tate, hitting him in the face and knocking him backwards against the car.

Still Tate laughed maniacally, "Oh that feels good pretty boy. I like it rough."

Matthew pushed him back onto the car, grabbing him by the sweater and punching him in the stomach, causing him to double over. When Tate looked back up, there was a dangerous gleam in his eye, his mouth opening in an evil snare, blood smeared all over his teeth.

I jerked away from Mandie's vice grip and ran over to the boys before something terrible happened, fear gripping at the pit of my stomach. I couldn't stand it if something happened to Matthew because of me. He was in so much trouble and completely unaware to it. I couldn't risk anyone at the school recognizing Tate, either. I couldn't explain it if he just disappeared like he had a tendency to do.

I reached the boys, grabbing the plaid fabric on Matthew's back, pulling him by his shirt and off of Tate. I jumped in between then, my back to Tate, "Stop it! Stop it, please."

Matthew looked down at me, confusion coming over his face, breathing hard with the adrenaline rush coming over him, "Me?! What about him?"

"From where I'm standing, you are the one pounding on him," I said, realizing that my breath was coming hard from my mouth as well, anger welling up in me as he tried to pretend that he didn't do anything wrong. I reached behind me, hand searching for Tate to see if he was still there. My skin found the rough fabric of his worn jeans and settled on his knee.

"But he…he said."

"He said I liked it, Matthew," I growled, trying to get him to understand what Tate had been saying, trying to get him to understand that he didn't really hurt me, not in the way that he had insinuated.

I saw the realization hit him, his face growing angrier as he shook his head, "Whatever, Josie." He ran his hand through his brown hair and walked over to his car, getting in and slamming the door.

"Pissy little thing isn't he," Tate said from behind me.

I turned around to him, glaring at him, "Get in the car."

I shot Mandie an apologetic look as I got into the passenger side of his car and sat down, Tate closing the door behind me. He let himself into the driver's seat next to me and smiled, "So where to?"

"I still hate you," I insisted, raising my hand to wipe the blood off of his chin.

He closed his eyes, reveling in the feel of my hand against his lips. He took my hand softly, putting his soft lips to my hand and licking the blood off of them.

"You're disgusting," I said, jerking my hand back and wiping it on my pants.

"And you love it."

He pulled out of the parking lot of the school, following the road in the opposite direction of our house, "So where are we going?"

"Some place quiet," he answered, eyes focused on the road now.

"Where'd you get the car?"

"Borrowed it from my mom."

"Borrowed it?"

He laughed, "Well, I know where she keeps the keys. I'm sure she will know what happened to it."

"My dad will shit his pants if I don't come straight home after school."

"Already taken care of it. I talked to him this afternoon and told him we were going to go study at Anne's house."

I was shocked, "And he believed you?"

"Yes, I can be quite convincing. Moira also put in good word for me."

"Is she dead?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied, turning down a different, more gravely road. There was no one else around as the trees started coming up on either side of us.

"You aren't taking me to kill me and dump the body where they will never find me are you?"

"No, I told you. I will never hurt you. You should never hurt those you love. Never. Besides, if you are anywhere near dying, I will drag you back to the house so you can stay with me."

"You sound like you've thought about that," I said.

"I just worry that something will happen to you and I won't be able to get to you," he whispered, tears welling up in his dark brown eyes.

I put my arm on his shoulder, "You really need to get on a good mood stabilizer."

"I've never stayed on that crap."

"Obviously," I agreed, feeling the smile rising in my face, the first one I'd had since sitting in computer class the day before, that familiar swelling of my chest as he smiled over at me.

"I was afraid my dick wouldn't work."

I burst out laughing, doubling over in my chair.

"Sit up," he said, reaching out and pushing me back in the chair, "That could be dangerous."

I slowed down my laughter and looked over at him, catching the serious way he was looking at me, genuinely worried about me. He smiled slightly, embarrassed I think by the display of emotions playing over his face, and looked back towards the ending road ahead. He pulled over the car and got out, going back to the trunk and opening the lid.

I stepped out of the car as he shut the lid and came around the side of the car. He had blankets in his arms and was motioning for me to follow him. I went willingly, anxious to see where we were going.

I found myself walking onto the beach, deserted and not another person in site. The sun was starting to set in front of us, tucking herself under the water in the distance.

"It's beautiful," I said, foot going down into the sand and almost tripping.

Tate turned around to me and put his arm around me, steadying me as we walked to the edge of the sand. He laid out of the blankets and plopped down on top of it, pulling me down with him, "I used to come here when I needed to think."

"I can see why. It's very private."

He nodded, and turned to me, "Do you think you can forgive me?"

"For what?"

"My past…"

I chewed on my bottom lip, considering what he was asking me. He wanted me to forget what he'd done, look over the fact that he'd killed people before he died, continued to afterwards. It was something I wasn't sure I could do. I knew my psychology well, read book after book about murderers. Psychopaths did not feel anything. They didn't _feel_ emotions for anyone. They were empty, soulless monsters.

But the way Tate was looking at me was unlike any way that a boy had looked at me. It wasn't something I expected from a monster. His eyes were full of something unfamiliar, something caring and strong, as he stared at me and waited for a response. Fear was creeping up into his face as I took the time to try to think, try to sort through the fifty thousand emotions I was feeling.

I was angry.

Hurt.

Scared.

Confused.

Familiar feelings that usually plagued me.

…

But I was nervous.

Happy.

Peaceful.

Content.

Feelings that were somewhat foreign to me, ones I didn't have unless I was at home with my brother, my father…my mother.

But I was alive…and he was…

Dead

"There's no way this can ever work," I said, tears rising up in my eyes.

I saw his face fall, "Because of what I've done?"

"No, it's not that. Tate, you're dead. I'm not. There's only one way this would ever work out…"

"No, Josie, don't even think that," he said, shaking his head.

"You know it's true. There's no way to bring you back to life. We'd have to…I'd have to…"

"NO!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet and pacing back and forth over the blanket. He ran his hands through his blonde curls, "I won't let you do that."

"If it's my choice then you can't-"

"I won't let you," he insisted, turning to look at me with tears in his eyes.

"You can't stop me if I'm not on the property."

"Josie, it doesn't work that way. It's that _house._ There's something about it. It revives people, keeps them locked up inside of it. If you killed yourself, there's no guarantee you'd be coming back if you weren't there."

"Then we'll burn it down!" I said, standing up and walking over to him.

He grabbed me by the arms, holding them down at my sides, "You have lost your fucking mind. What do you think would happen to me if you did that?"

"It could free you…"

"Or destroy me."

_I hadn't thought of that._

"So what exactly did you have in mind when you decided to sleep with me?!" I asked, jerking away from him and crossing my arms.

"I didn't think that far. I'd been jerking off for years, Josie. You intrigued me. I didn't think you'd actually fuck me."

"Well I did."

"Do you regret it?"

I paused, "What? No."

He stepped over to me, grasping at my face with his hands and kissing me. I reached up to touch his hands, wanting to remove them. But he deepened the kiss, sending chills down my spine and causing me to wrap my arms around him. I could feel the despair in his kisses, pouring his very soul into it as his tongue dancing with mine. His cool lips moved against mine, fogging my mind and urging me to forget about his past, forget about how angry I'd been.

I pulled back, looking up into his dark brown eyes, breathless, "I need you to be honest with me. How many people did you kill before you died?"

"16 I swear."

"And after?"

"Two."

"I-I need you to tell my why you…why you did that. I need to understand."

He leaned over and rested his forehead on mine, sighing defeated, "Before I left the house that day, I got really fucked up. Cocaine. Crystal Meth. My mom was an alcoholic, abusive slut. My dad left when I was young cause he couldn't stand her bullshit. She had her boyfriend kill my brother to cover her abuse and so I killed him. I wasn't really popular in school, didn't have a lot of friends. High school is a shit hole. Nothing good comes out of it. There's so much shit and piss and vomit in this world, Josie. I didn't care anymore. I think maybe I thought I could send them on to a better place. Maybe not. Afterwards, I went back home and the cops came, broke down the door and sent the SWAT team in. They pointed their guns at me and I pulled my gun out from under the pillow…and BAM BAM BAM. That was it for me."

"And afterwards?"

"That's a little more complicated. That house changes people. No one in there is the same as they were when they died. I promised Nora, one of the ghosts, that I'd get her a baby and Chad and Patrick weren't going to give her one so I killed them to get someone else to move in…"

"And now?"

He pulled away from me, taking a few steps back and sitting back on the blanket. He put his head in his hands and leaned over his knees. After a few minutes he looked back up at me, serious look on his face, "I still think about it….killing people. Thoughts, visions, whatever you want to call them. But I haven't acted on them. I won't if that's what it takes for you to trust me."

I walked over to him and sat down in front of him, taking his hands, "I can't imagine what you were going through when you were alive. It sounds like a shitty life to lead and I wish I could have been there to make it better for you."

He leaned over and kissed me softly, quickly, and met my eyes with his, "I wouldn't have wanted you to be in that school when it went down."

"Maybe I could have stopped it."

"Nobody could have stopped me. I don't think I could have stopped me. If I wanted to."

I could tell he was being honest with me, it's what I'd asked for. But truthfully it scared me. I didn't want to hear anymore.

"So um, I'm living there now and I'd rather you not kill anyone in it ok?"

"Deal," he said, holding out his hand to shake on it.

I giggled and took his hand, shaking it twice before he pulled me to him, kissing me with his sexy lips and wrapping his arms around me. He lowered me down onto the blanket, showering me with kisses as he propped himself up on his elbows. I was determined not to let my thoughts get to me as he kissed me sweetly, gently, more so than he'd done in the past. Raising my hands to grasp at his neck, I returned the kiss, letting my tongue mingle with his under the now starry sky. I could hear the crashing of the waves as we lay there, intertwined in each other.

I objected when he pulled away from me, groaning for him not to go. But he reached back just long enough to grab the second blanket and pull it over us. When his lips found mine again, they were more ferocious, more desperate as they moved against mine. His hands trailed down my body, cold fingers running under my shirt and pushing my bra up to caress my breast gently, eliciting an excited moan from me. He chuckled into my mouth, satisfied to make my body react this way after we'd just fought.

"Maybe we shouldn't," I said, pushing back from him, my eyes unfocused from being closed and so engulfed in him.

He paused, "We don't have to if you don't want."

"It's not that I don't…I just don't know what this is right now."

"I just want you so badly," he whispered, kissing me again almost bruising my lips as he pressed himself into me. I gave him entrance to my mouth again, reveling in the feel of him pushing my legs apart with his and making a spot for himself. I moved my hands into his hair, twirling my fingers into the blonde locks as he moved his kisses down my neck and to my collarbone. His lips swept over my skin, sending shivers down my spine as he claimed me as his, encouraging me to give in to what my body was begging me to do.

He ground his hips into me, causing me to catch my breath in my throat. I grasped at his curls as he disappeared underneath the blanket. I felt him undoing my jeans, lowering them down and off my body. He kissed his way back up the pale skin, making me lose all reason as he trailed up me. I felt him tugging at my panties, pushing the lace over as he skimmed his fingers over the most intimate part of me, moving inside of me and pressing against my sweet spot and making my body feel warm all over.

"Taaaaate," I moaned, laying my head back onto the blanket and closing my eyes, letting him take me over, letting myself drown in him. I was still kinda pissed off at him for lying to me, for doing such horrible things and not confiding in me, but he was moving his mouth along me now and I couldn't think straight.

I could feel the pressure building inside of me, threatening to spill over and consume me. It was as if he could tell because he pulled back, kissing his way back up my body until he skimmed over my shirt and began sucking and biting at the top of my breast. It made me cry out from underneath him, beg him to take me.

"_Please."_

He obliged without saying a word, undoing his pants and boxers in a quick movement and losing them underneath the blanket. He planted himself back in between my shaking thighs and entered me slowly. I whispered a soft yes as he tucked himself into my neck, closing the distance between us. He moved slowly at first, taking the time to continue to scatter wet cold kisses along my mouth, my face, my hair, my chest. Taking over my senses, pulling me down under him and making me lose myself in the sensations taking over our bodies. He was hard against my soft, cold against my hot, creating an unknown sensation between us. As if heat and cool were running along each other, causing a slight fog to rise between us, covering us, coating us in its darkness.

Tate grasped my hips, rolling over me over on top of me and causing me to cry out as the whole length of him pressed into me. He worked my hips, moving me along him as I panted above him. I bit my lip, fighting back the whimpers that tried to come over me, not ready to show him how much he was getting to me. But god he felt so good. He was so sexy laying there, head back, eyes closed, sensual mouth open in pleasure. His blonde hair was thrown back over his head.

He looked up at me then, that suggestive smile playing over his face. He reached up, taking me by the face and pulling me down to me, eyeing me with those deep brown eyes, "God, you are so warm."

I closed my eyes as he kissed me, trying to drink the very essence of him down into me, so aroused by his words, knowing that this was affecting him the same as it was me. I felt him griping my hips harder, moving quicker against me as I struggled to keep up, hands at his shoulders. I could feel myself losing my rhythm against him, sounds escaping me uncontrollably as he pounded into me.

The pleasure engrossed, my breathe coming in labored attempts to get oxygen into my being as he flipped me over, rising over me and taking me. He overwhelmed me, plunging into me over and over, faster and faster, until I couldn't take it anymore.

"Oh god, yes Tate. Uhhhgnnnnf," I cried, screams escaping me as the climax took me over, his cold lips finding the hollow of my throat and nibbling me there, pulling the pleasure out of me over and over.

"Yes come for me, Josie, oh yes. Scream my name, yes like that," he moaned, finally losing himself in the moment and giving over to the spasms ripping through his body.

He rolled over to the side of me and wrapped me in his arms. He snuggled up against me and sighed, "Shit, that was amazing"

I couldn't disagree, but I couldn't answer him due to my body crashing around me from our lengthy fucking session. I closed my eyes and let sleep come.

"Do you want to get out of here?" he asked as I woke up from my nap, his finger tracing patterns in my hair.

"What time is it?"

"Almost midnight," he said, kissing my hair and pulling me closer to him.

Panic hit me, "Shit, my dad."

"Don't worry, I've been keeping an eye on your phone. No one has called."

"Are you sure?" I asked, jerking up and searching for it.

Tate handed my phone to me, "I'm sure."

"That's' so weird. I'm way past curfew and he's not even checked in on me."

"Maybe he's busy," Tate shrugged, rubbing his face against my straight black hair.

"He's never missed out on an opportunity to text me at least fifty times before I was supposed to be home," I said, sitting up and looking through my messages with worry. There were some from Mandie, some from Anne, but none from dad. "What if he's hurt?"

"He's fine," he insisted, reaching up to run his finger across my lips, leaning over to me and replacing his finger with his cold lips, his tongue sneaking into my mouth and running along mine.

I shivered under his touch, pulling the blanket up to my chin as we kissed, trying to drown out some of the cold. His hands were resting on my side, drawing designs across my skin softly as our lips moved. He pulled me closer to him, I think to help me be warmer under the October moon, but he was so cold.

"Josie," he said, an uncertain sound creeping into his voice as he rested his forehead on mine.

"Yeah?"

"I need to tell you something."

I could feel the dread twisting up in me, preparing me for some awful thing that he'd kept from me, "What?"

"I-um."

"What now, Tate?" I asked, exasperated and still tired from the emotional day and physical acts that had taken place for hours along this beach.

His black eyes bore into mine, hands coming up to grasp my face, make me look at him as he spoke, "I love you. There I said it. It's driving me crazy."

I froze. _He what!?_

"Aren't you going to say something?" he asked.

"You can't possibly…are you sure?"

He nodded, pulling back from my face and into an embrace, "Yeah I'm sure. I've never felt this way for anyone before."

I was so confused. I wanted to tell him that I loved him, yearned for him when he wasn't around. This feeling in me when he was around was so weird, so new, so wonderful. I just couldn't get myself to accept it, to believe what he was saying when I knew the terrible things he did.

So I just sat there with him under the moonlight, listened to him talk about when he was alive. How much he hated high school. All the people he'd looked up to that hadn't graduated. How he'd hated himself for killing those people, but how he wouldn't take it back cause it'd mean that he couldn't be here with me. Right now. Wrapped in each other as we laid back against the ground and looked up at the stars, waves crashing against the sea as he spoke. Leaving me to feel so comfortable, so at home in his cold embrace, warmed only by the spark in my body, his fingers stroking me until I fell asleep again.

When daylight broke, he woke me up, mumbling incoherently about getting back to the house. I didn't want to leave. Didn't want to get up from this private place that we had on this beach. Just the two of us alone in the vast surroundings. Not a thing to worry about.

But he insisted, pulling me up to my feet and gathering the blankets around us. He apologized as we made our way back to the car, piled in and I laid over on his lap, still tired from the night before. He drove us home carefully, running his hands through my hair as I tried not to passed out on his lap.

When we got there, my dad met us at the door and let us inside. He didn't even question me about why I'd been out so late. About why I was walking inside with a boy. It was so weird. Something I never thought he'd do. He grumbled about Ms. Langdon and Tate and made his way back to the kitchen. So Tate walked me upstairs to my bedroom, laying me down onto the comfortable bed and wrapping me in his arms until my alarm went off a short time later.


	7. Chapter 7

"So what gives," Mandie asked me when she found me at a lone table in the corner of the cafeteria.

I was exhausted. I'd barely had any sleep before my horrid alarm had went off, forcing me to get up and throw on some clothes and drag myself to school. Tate had been gone when I got up, but I found some purple roses sitting on my desk. And I'd known they'd been from him, an apology I was sure from the night before. I'd felt my heart swell in my chest, pushing the lovey dovey thoughts from my mind as I raced out to the school bus.

"I don't' know what you mean," I finally answered as I twirled my spaghetti.

She leaned over to me, speaking quietly, "Tate. Remember the stuff we found online?"

"Yeah."

"I don't get it…"

I sighed, finally settling down my silverware and looking up at my friend, "Wanna know a secret?"

She nodded.

"I live in a haunted house."

She rolled her eyes, "Well duh."

"No, I mean really."

"You've been hanging around Matthew too much this past week."

"No, I know what I'm talking about," I said, resting my hand on her arm and making her meet my eyes. I pulled my turtle neck down, revealing the large group of hickeys extending from my clavicle down to my breast.

"Holy shit that looks brutal."

"It was amazing," I explained, trying to ignore the shock in her face, "Tate is, um…"

"Dead?" she asked, afraid to hear the answer

I nodded, "Yeah…he's kinda trapped in my house. The only reason he was here yesterday was because…"

"Halloween?"

"Yeah…and we went to the beach and, gosh Mandie. It was awesome. I can't even explain it. No one else was there and it was just me and him, alone, skin against skin. Ya know."

I had expected the shock on her face, which I saw now, but I hadn't expected her acceptance of it, "Do you love him?"

"No," I answered, too quickly for either of us to accept it.

"But he's good in bed?"

"Hell yes."

"Hmmm…but he killed all those people."

"Yeah, we talked about that. He's promised not to do it anymore," I explained, hoping she'd be able to get it. That or jerk me back into reality and tell me how stupid I was being.

She looked at me for a minute, thoughtful as she crocked her head to the side, "I think the ghost thing is sexy. Who knew you could even touch a ghost. He looks so real."

"You don't even know…" I said, biting my lip and fighting the smile that was taking over my entire face.

"Look, Josie, I'm happy that you've found someone who makes you smile like a kid on Christmas morning…but he's a killer."

"He wouldn't hurt me."

"How can you possibly know that?"

"I…I don't know."

She sighed, "Those bruises really do look pretty vicious though. I don't know that he'd do that if he wasn't going to hurt you."

"I didn't even realize I was getting them. It felt so good."

"They look like you've been beaten, not love bitten."

"Are they really that bad?"

She nodded, "Did you take a really good look at them before you pulled on that turtle neck? It's going to take forever for it to heal."

"I mean I saw them…"

"Do you think he's really safe?"

"I dunno…I think so."

"I'm going to be texting you a lot to make sure you are still alive. He _burned _a man to death. That's painful, one of the worst ways you can die. Can you imagine?"

I shook my head, she was right.

"And he shot his peers, Josie. People he's probably know most of his life. They were just like you and me. Being a ghost could make him more dangerous."

I wrapped my arms around my body, hugging to myself to try to stop the fear that was creeping up in me as I added to the body count, "He also killed that gay couple that was living in the house before me."

"Are you serious!? See, he's not changed," she threw her hands up in the air, exasperated with me.

"I know, I know, I don't need you to lecture me."

"You need to move out of that house. It's not safe. People have died there over and over since it was built."

"Now who's sounding like Matthew?"

"Are there other ghosts there?"

I signed, "Yes but I've only seen one other."

"Okay, so you have a boyfriend. He's dead, has dead friends, is sexy and good in bed, but he's psychotic."

"Basically."

She crinkled her nose as if she'd thought of something gross, "Ew, does that mean you are a necrophilliac?"

I scrunched my nose to match hers, disgusted at the idea, "God I hope not. That's nasty."

"Let's see," she said, pulling out her phone and looking around to see if any teachers were looking. She found something of her liking and pushed it over to me, "Spectrophilia, you're in the clear."

"Praise the Lord."

"For real."

"Please don't say anything."

"Your secret is safe with me, but expect texts. Lots of them. And if he tries anything, you'd better leave that house and tell me," she responded, digging into her salad and talking about this guy she thought was hot across the room.

* * *

My dad had surely lost his mind

First he was going on dates. Then he was letting me go with a boy to "study" when I was grounded. Now he was forcing me to sit with him at dinner with this woman he was dating. And apparently her nephew that was living with her.

That was it. He'd lost it. Maybe my real dad had been abducted by aliens or fairies and this was a changeling.

Yea that was it.

"Go ahead and set up the table, Josie. They will be there soon," the changeling said in the most eerie imitation of my father's voice that I'd ever heard.

I rolled my eyes, hoping not to receive the wrath of the creature, and dragged my brother into the dining room with me.

"Here, put these forks where I put plates okay?" I asked, handing him the handful of silverware.

"Okie dokie Sissy," he said, following behind me and putting a silver piece beside each one. We then set out cups and napkins for everyone.

By the time we were done, I heard a knock at the door and peeked around the corner to see. Dillon ran past me and into the other room where my dad was, wrapping his arms around the taller man's legs.

The alien, still assuming my father's shape, opened the door to reveal a tall, curvaceous woman. She was dressed in a tight black dress with a wide red belt underneath her large breasts. Her blonde hair fell in massive curls around her head as she stepped inside, kissing my father on the cheek and walking further into the room as if she owned the place

"This home is simply gorgeous."

_Are you kidding me._

Behind her, in walked a familiar boy, my age, tall and slender with wavy brown hair. Matthew. _Shit._

I had just a moment to debate going upstairs and putting on something else or running for the hills. I'd put on my black skinny jeans and my favorite purple top turtle neck with designs on it, but it was form fitting. I felt like I was smothering in the doorway, gripping the doorway to hold on to it and shaking my head to make sure I wasn't crazy.

"Hey Jos," he said, nodding at me and walking past me to take a seat.

Nope he was here. And we hadn't talked since the situation in the parking lot. I'd went to school that day and did not say a word to him. I didn't want to see him. I didn't want to talk to him. I didn't even talk to Anne or Josh today because every time I tried, they wanted to talk about Matthew.

Now here he was in my house with that _woman. _

"I didn't know you two knew each other," she said as she walked past me and took a seat.

I felt myself scowling at her, daggers shooting through my eyes at her without a word. My brother and father came in and sat down too, leaving me standing angry in the doorway.

"Come on sweetie, sit down. This is my friend Carla and her nephew Matthew," my dad said as I went to sit down at the table.

"Whatever."

"Don't be rude, Josie."

I gave an exaggerated sign and crossed my arms, slouching down in the seat. Him and _Carla _made small chit chat as Moira brought in dinner, serving each of us as we sat there. My brother was busy talking to Matthew about his day at pre-k while I sat in misery. I was not about to make small talk with him or that skanky ho. I ate my dinner quickly, being the first one finished and sat back in my chair again. Finally what seemed like hours later, dinner was over and I was happy that I hadn't had to talk to the intruders.

"Well we are going to go hang out. I'm sure you guys can keep each other company," my dad said, getting up and taking Carla's hand.

_WHAT!? _

"Dad!" I exclaimed, jumping up out of my seat because I was absolutely shocked that he'd leave me alone with a boy a second time.

He didn't even answer me, just continued to walk out of the room with his woman and leave me alone.

"Unbelievable," I muttered.

"Sissy! I'm going to go play with my train set!" Dillon said and left me as well, leaving me in the room in awkward silence.

Matthew stood up, "So, um, what do you want to do?"

"Don't pretend this isn't awkward."

"I'm not."

"You are," I insisted.

"Well we can either sit here and stare at each other or we can talk."

"I have this new zombie video game we could play. It's pretty brutal," I suggested, deciding it was better to do something instead of leave him alone in this house.

"Okay."

I turned around and started walking to my bedroom, Matthew trailing behind me. This was just craziness. A week ago I'd have died to have him coming with me to my room, but now, now there was Tate. And Tate was complicated.

When we got to my bedroom, he took as seat at my desk, making himself at home, "You're house keeper is smoking."

"That's nasty."

"She is! I don't know how your dad lets her get away with that outfit."

I looked at him in shock, "She's like a hundred years old, Matthew. Seriously?"

"What? She looks like she's barely 21."

"You're delusional," I swore and took a seat on the edge of the bed. But maybe it was true. Maybe he saw something different when he looked at her. I know I'd caught my dad looking at her…checking her out maybe. I'd have to ask Tate.

Matthew laughed, standing up and coming to sit beside me on the bed, "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday. I overreacted when I saw him in the parking lot. But you and Mandie looked scared and I jumped to the worst possible reason for that."

I scooted backwards onto the bed to put some space between us, "I appreciate you trying to take up for me, but you can't just start beating on someone like that. It's crazy."

He moved closer to me and took my hand, "I know, I'm sorry. I just couldn't stand the thought that he…that he'd hurt you."

"Why do you think he'd do that?" I asked, putting some more space between us and running into the clump of pillows at the top of the bed. He was being very persistent with me, trying to show me that he was sorry, but that he wanted to move things further.

Still he moved closer, stopping just a few inches away from me, "I just get this vibe from him. It's weird. I can't explain it."

I was hard to hear from someone else, because I knew exactly what he was talking about. That look he could get in his eye that was incredibly scary, the way he could call attention to himself in a second or push it away from him. There was something not trustworthy about him, especially since I'd struggled to come to terms with his past behaviors.

Matthew reached up to caress my face, his hand warm against my skin, a foreign feeling to me after the cold body I was used to cuddling up with. I should stop him. I shouldn't be closing my eyes, shouldn't be enjoying the warm breath that was getting closer to my face. I should push him off as he's pressing his lips to mine, also warm and inviting. It felt so right to feel the heat radiating off of him, the racing of his heartbeat similar to mine as I reached up to put my hand on his chest, unsure if I should shove him off of me or keep going. He was a real boy, someone who I could realistically spend time with. For the long run. Outside of this house. It was normal.

I felt the hairs on my neck stand on end, a chill going down my spine and snapping me out of my thoughts. His kisses moved to the side of my face and along my jawline, giving me the chance to flutter my eyelids open, meet the black eyes staring at me from the corner of the room. He was standing there, that disturbing stare on his face, glaring at us from across the way. His hands were balled up at his sides, jawline set tight on his face. He shook his head at me and the lights began to flicker. I screamed out as I heard the light bulbs in my room blow, exploding into pieces.

Matthew pulled back from me, "Whoa, what happened."

"I- um, must have been a power outage," I said, pulling my trembling body back from him and sliding off of the bed.

"That's some power surge."

"Don't move," I instructed, trying to find my flashlight in my bedside drawer. I found it and pulled it out, pushing the button several times to no avail. The light would not come on.

I moved across the room, mumbling under my breath, "Remember, you promised."

"What?" Matthew asked.

"Nothing."

I found my phone on the table, intending on pulling up my flashlight app so I could see what was going on. My hands found it, but it jerked itself out of my grasp, flying across the room to smash against the far wall.

_Shit._

"Josie?" I heard my father calling.

He pushed open the door of my room with Carla on his arm. He had an old timey candle in his hand, the flame projecting a slight glow into the room. My brother ran past him and to me, hugging me tightly and crying.

"Shh, it's okay," I cooed and picked him up. I adjusted him on my hip and looked over at my father, "What happened?"

"I think we had a power surge. I'm sending Carla and Matthew home so we can call the electrician to come out."

"That's probably a good idea," I said, following him out into the hallway and hoping that Tate would calm down after they left.

I grabbed ahold of Matthew's shirt with my free hand, leading him down towards the steps.

"Whoa!" he yelled as the rug pulled out from under him, my hand the only thing to keep him from rolling down the stairs.

I grasped at him and cursed under my breath, walking in front of him down the stairs after that and to the doorway. Once we made it there, the lights flickered back on.

"That's weird," my dad said, walking outside with Carla.

Matthew turned to me, "Sorry it was such a crappy night. Maybe we can talk tomorrow? At school?"

"Sure," I said, not really certain that I wanted to talk to him anymore. It was way too difficult with Tate here in the house and I didn't need to add any more confusion to the mound of emotions that I felt.

I returned to my room with the broom, closing the door behind me and screwed in new light bulbs, sending a glow across my room. It was a little brighter than I was used to. I began to sweep up the piles glass off the floor from where my light bulbs had exploded.

"I could have killed him" I heard Tate growl from behind me.

I swept up the last bit of glass into the pan and turned around to him, taking note of the anger in his face, "But you didn't"

He stepped over to me and grabbed me by the face, hands gripping me but not hurting me as he glared into my eyes, "But I wanted to. When I saw him kiss you, I lost my fucking mind. I _ached _to just wrap my hands around his scrawny throat and snap his neck."

I swallowed, scared by the admissions coming from him. "And…and you didn't do it. That's a good thing."

"Is it?" he asked, tearing away from me and running his hands through his hair. He looked unsure, looked confused as he paced the room.

"Yeah, it is. You promised and you followed through."

"You don't know how hard that was, Josie, I'm a damned monster. I was standing there fantasizing about seeing the light drain from his eyes, his soul leaving his body."

I didn't know what to say. Couldn't come up with anything comforting to say to him. He was admitting to me how hard it was for him not to _kill _someone, how difficult it'd been for him to let Matthew leave my home alive. It was terrifying, the way he'd lose himself in that insane party of him, leaving my loving Tate somewhere else.

He stopped pacing, looking at me with tears in his eyes, "I wanted to snap his fucking neck."

By this point I was shaking, trying to grasp the fact that he'd been inches away from murdering someone else, but that his promise to me had held him back. I took a few cautious steps towards him, reaching my hand out to him, "It's okay, Tate. It's okay."

He took my hand, pulling me to him and sobbing into my shirt, holding on to me as if I were the last tangible thing in his world. The last thing grounding him to reality.

"I can't lose you. If I lost you, I'd lose whatever sanity is left in me."

I backed up towards my bed, carting him behind me. I crawled up onto the mattress and he followed, laying down and burying his head into the pillow. Aligning my body with his, I played my arm around the front of him and cuddled up behind him, stroking his hair, "It's going to be okay, Tate. Just breathe sweetie. It's going to be okay."


	8. Chapter 8

_The swat team stood with their guns pointed towards me, ordering me to freeze, put my hands up. I did freeze, pulling my hands up in front of me in surrender, feeling the sting of tears in my eyes. I lifted my right hand, pointing it at my head as a gun and making the firing sound as I cracked a slight smile. Suddenly, I felt myself reach for the gun under my pillow and felt the first bullet rip into me._

"Oh my god, no no no! Tate!"

"Josie, Josie!" I heard him exclaim, shaking me and trying to wake me from my dream.

I sat up in bed, grasping at his arms, trying to focus on him, see him sitting there with me, make sure he was okay. Make sure he was alive with me and that he was okay. He was there, worried look on his face, holding my face in his hands and whispering to me that everything was okay, that I was dreaming.

But even as he spoke to me, held me, took me in his arms as the sobs overtook me, I knew that he was gone. Knew that he was dead. Knew that he was not really okay. That he was gone from this world and that I couldn't save him from the past that had already happened.

* * *

Matthew was waiting at my locker when I got to school, much to my unapproval. I pushed past him to grab my books, ignoring the confused look on his face as I walked off.

"Hey," he exclaimed, jogging to catch up with me and falling into step beside me.

I answered, "Hey."

"So, um, I really enjoyed our time together last night."

I didn't answer him, just continued to stare at the floor of the school.

"Are you okay?" he asked, grabbing my arm and making me look at him.

I nodded, jerking my arm away from him and fighting back the tears in my eyes, the memories that had plagued me from when I awoke. Memories that were not my own but kept coming to me. Reminding me of the pain and suffering that Tate had when he died, when he lived and was miserable. When he was high and uncontrollable. Shot dead in his own home, in my very bedroom.

I shook my head, trying to clear the thoughts from my brain and bring myself to the present moment. _You're Josie Summers. You are walking the hallways at your school. Westfield High._

That wasn't helping.

"You don't look okay," Matthew said and took my hand, leading me to our classroom.

I didn't have the strength to object to his hand in mine, to tell him I didn't need his help or consolation. Because really I did. I needed someone real there to ground me, keep me in the moment. Help me to stay out of those terrible nightmares. He let go of my hand as I sat down in class, the teacher coming in and lecturing to us.

I laid my head down on my desk, exhausted, drained, and fell asleep.

_Whack._

I jerked up, fear gripping at me as I took in my surroundings. My history teacher stood over me, long pointer in his hand that the used to show things on the PowerPoint. He must have slapped it across my desk, startling me to wake. I'd never fell asleep in class before, no matter how tired I was.

At least I'd gotten to sleep for a few minutes. Gotten to escape the nightmares.

"Miss Summers, are you going to stay with us in the land of the living or are you going to go back to dreamland?"

_That's the question of the year isn't it… _"No, I'm good, sorry," I said, apologizing and slouching back in my seat.

"Okay then," he said, going back into his lengthy speech about…something, and walking away from me.

I leaned back in my seat, letting my head roll back and stare up at the ceiling. I let out a long sigh and began counting the tiles above me, doing something, anything to keep me awake until the bell could ring.

Finally it did and I jumped up, grabbed my books, and ran from the classroom.

"Are you sure you are okay?" Matthew asked me in the lunch line later that day.

I continued on in front of him, glancing over the food and seeing absolutely nothing that appetized me, "Yeah, I'm good."

"You don't look good. Since when do you pass over chocolate cake?" he asked, taking a piece from himself at the end of the line.

I just shrugged and handed the lunch lady my money. She objected, pointing out that my tray was empty but I just walked on, ignoring her in my daze. Matthew paid, I'm sure, and followed behind me, "Josie!"

_All the other kids with the pumped up kicks better run better run, outrun my gun. _

I scowled, hearing the catchy tune playing from the right of me. I turned my head, seeing several of the preppy kids dancing around to the song as it played on their iPod on their table. I dropped my tray, hearing it clank on the floor as my feet continued to walk. It was horrible. Didn't they know what that song was about!? Awful. I couldn't stand it.

_All the other kids with the pumped up kicks better run better run, faster than my bullet._

I could hear Matthew objecting behind me as I turned in the direction of the music, walking over to the table and grabbing the device off the flat surface. I turned it in my hand, glaring at it as it sang…

_All the other kids with the pumped up kicks…_

I threw it against the wall of the cafeteria, walking over to where it landed and stomping on it with my foot, unintelligible screams coming out of my mouth over and over until I felt a pair of hands around me.

"Josie, it's okay."

"No no no no no!" I exclaimed, struggling to free myself form the arms that encircled me, pulling me to them. He didn't understand. None of them understood. Things were most certainly not okay.

"Shhh, it's okay."

"It's not okay! It's never going to be okay!" I insisted, bucking against the firm grip of the slim arms around me before sinking to the ground, tears streaming down my face as I buried myself into Matthew's flannel shirt, sobs gripping at me as the whole room watched.

I could hear them whispering, laughing at me as I broke down, happy to see the new girl breaking down in front of the whole school. Losing that fearless image that I'd fought so hard to create. Losing the carefree attitude that I'd tried to maintain since I'd been there. Losing myself as my eyes grew dim, the light closing in around me as everything went dark.

* * *

"I'm really worried about your daughter, Mr. Summers," I heard the school counselor say.

I didn't open my eyes yet, wanting to take in my surroundings before I did so for fear of what I'd find. I was laying down, my face resting on a soft pillow but my body uncomfortable against the hard plastic of what had to be the couch in the counseling center.

"Why's that?" I heard my father respond, a slight twinge of concern in his voice.

The counselor sighed, "Well, Mr. Summers. She fell asleep in class today, didn't eat lunch, and smashed a peer's iPod. Your daughter isn't the most social kid in school, but she never causes any trouble. All these things happened in one day. One of our faculty found her curled up in a ball of the cafeteria with a friend, crying her eyes out before she passed out."

"Oh," he said.

_Oh? That's all I get?_

"How are things at home? Are you two getting along?"

"Yes, we get along fine," my father growled, obviously appalled by her insinuations.

"I know starting a new school can be difficult."

"It is."

"Especially after losing her mother."

"I don't think we need to bring her mother into this," he insisted.

The counselor paused, "I think you should go ahead and take her home. Maybe having the afternoon off will help her recoup. She will still have to do her work from today but it might help."

"Maybe your shitty teachers did something to upset her," my father hissed, completely out of character.

"Mr. Summers, you need to calm down," she responded, keeping her voice level, "Maybe tomorrow you can bring her back and you will both be back to normal."

I opened my eyes, taking in my father sitting across the desk from the petite blonde lady behind the desk. Her glasses were perched on the end of her nose, her eyes moving to me as I sat up, "Hey Josie, how are you feeling?"

"Better," I said quietly, remembering my flip out and the blush rising in my cheeks_. Oh how embarrassing._

"Do you care if I talk to her for a few minutes?" she asked.

My father nodded, not even looking at me, and walked out the door.

She turned those big blue eyes to me, "So tell me about what happened."

_My boyfriend's a school shooter and died. _"I dunno."

"Now, Josie, you know what is said in here is confidential."

I sat up and pulled my legs into me, resting my chin on them, "I know."

She was quiet, looking at me, watching me. Giving me the opportunity to respond, but I didn't want to talk about myself.

"Do you remember Tate Langdon?"

"Yes," she said, a slight bit of concern flickering through her eyes.

"What was he like?"

She took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose, "He was a quiet boy, ran track for a while. He was into that 90s grudge music and the other kids made fun of him a lot."

I felt a stabbing at my heart as I listened to her, sadness creeping over me at her description, "Did he ever come and see you?"

"I encouraged him to, and he did sometimes. But he just sat there, staring at me and talking about other students. Much like you are doing Miss Summers," she said, replacing her glasses and looking at me through them.

Silence.

"Is that what's got you so upset?"

More silence. I didn't want to share my feelings with her. Didn't want to share my concerns. She'd lock me away if I started telling ghost stories.

So I sat there

And so did she.

I glanced up at the clock, seeing the small hand reaching out to signal that it was 12 PM, school was mostly over. I wasn't sure how long she could, or intended to keep me here.

"He ended up doing some terrible things here," she said as I returned my gaze to her.

"I know."

"Josie, I know you've been through a lot of things over the past few months and that can add a lot of stress on an already emotional teenager…if you are having thoughts of hurting someone else…"

"I'm not going to shoot up the school, don't worry," I said, not letting her finish that thought, "I've just been reading up on the history of the town and I've been having nightmares about that."

"I see," she said, not completely convinced.

I pulled myself up from the couch, "Look, if I start having homicidal thoughts I promise I will come straight here."

"Josie-" I could hear her say as I walked out the door and shut it behind me.

My father signed me out of school and walked me out to the car not saying anything.

Once we started down the road, he spoke, "So tell me what's going on."

"I'm just stressed is all."

"You've been spending a lot of time in your bedroom or that creepy basement. That's not like you."

I shrugged.

"Your brother misses you coming home to play with him every day."

"We play."

"Not as much as you use to," he maintained.

"You're acting different too."

"How so."

I glared at him from the side of my eyes, "Well for starters, you have completely forgot that I'm supposed to be grounded. You've been letting me run around with boys alone, and you brought that skanky woman into our house."

"You're almost an adult, I just figured I should start letting you make your own decisions. And that 'skanky woman' has a very big heart."

"I'm sure she does," I mumbled.

"I don't appreciate your latent disrespect. If you are so miserable here then we can find another place to live."

I jerked my head up, "No."

"I know you hate this house. You hate that school. You've made it apparent that you didn't want to be here in the first place. Maybe if we moved back home you'd be happier."

"No, I've changed my mind."

"After this scene at school, I don't know that you will have the choice."

We pulled into the house and I hoped out of the car, walking quickly in front of him with my bag slung over my shoulder. I crossed my arms and turned away from him as he unlocked the door to let us in. He tried to talk to me as we walked inside but I just kept going, not stopping until I got to my room. I locked the door behind me and leaned against it, letting out a long sigh.

I walked into the open space, hoping to see Tate to tell him about the crazy day that I'd had but found myself alone. I sat down on my bed, dropping my bag onto the floor and sighing again.

My dad was wanting to move out of the house. He was right, when we first moved here I hated it, didn't want to be here. I didn't want to make friends. I didn't want to go to that school. Actually, I'd started plotting to find a way to get him to agree to move out of the house. He'd been so in love with it though, but his kids had always come first. I guess even though he'd been acting different, that hadn't changed.

I worked on my homework for a while, finishing up my history and math before deciding to go grab a snack. I walked out of my bedroom and down the hallway, freezing in my spot when I heard heels walking across the floor below me. Moira didn't wear heels so it had to be someone else. Someone I didn't know.

I reached the top of the stairs just in time to see Tate's mother in my house.

_That stupid bitch, _I thought as I leaned over the railing and saw her going into the basement. Tiptoeing down the stairs, I followed behind her, far enough away where she couldn't hear me but close enough where I could see what she was doing. We were going to have to get our locks changed. It was bad enough that her daughter kept sneaking in here, but she was innocent, playing games with my brother and talking to me at times. I knew this mother was a bad person, psychotic I was sure.

"Sweetie?" she asked into the darkness, "Mommie needs to talk to you."

"Then talk," Tate said, not hiding the fact that he was less than happy to see her. He came out of the shadows, face empty of emotion.

"That girl, Josie. I know you care about her but please tell me you haven't been sleeping with her."

"That's none of your business."

She slapped him hard once, across the face, his head jerking in an unnatural way and tears forming in his eyes, "What is wrong with you!?"

My breath caught in my throat as he lowered his gaze to the floor. I was expecting him to hit her back, let out the monster in him, but instead he backed away from her into the corner of the room. I'd never seen him scared for himself like that before, and it pained me to see him cowering in the corner as she approached him.

"Bad things could happen if you continue to have sex with her!"

"Just leave, please," he begged.

She began to hit him, over and over, slapping him in the face and the head and screaming at him. And he took it, throwing his hands up to protect himself and crying, one word leaving his mouth with each hit: Mama.

I felt myself moving down the stairs and across the room before I could think of what I was doing, "Stop hitting him!"

She paused, turning to look at me and throwing her hand over her mouth, "Oh my god."

I grabbed her by the arms and pulled her to me, "If you ever lay a hand on him again, it's not going to end well for you."

"You don't need to tell me how to parent my child."

I pushed her back against the wall, hearing the breath leave her as she smacked against it, "Get out of my house or I'm calling the police."

She looked over at Tate, opening her mouth to say something.

I stepped in front of him, blocking him from her view, "Don't you even talk to him."

I saw her gaze falter under my hard stare, walking over to the back door and leaving. Once she was gone, I turned around and dropped to the floor. He had his head buried in his arms and on top of his knees, sobbing. I reached up and brushed the hair on his forehead, "It's okay, Tate. It's okay."

I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him to me, continuing to reassure him until I could feel his body stop shaking.

He pulled back from me, wiping his face with the arm of his sweater and standing up. He ran his hands through his hair, "I wish you wouldn't have seen that."

"I can't believe she hit you! What the hell is wrong with her?"

"She's crazy, Josie. You need to stay away from her. Don't piss her off, she's dangerous."

I walked over him, wrapping my arms around his waist, "I'm not scared of her."

"Maybe you should be," he whispered, lowering his mouth to mine and kissing me. He stepped back from me, and told me that he needed to take care of some things. I nodded, starting to tell him that everything was going to be okay, but he vanished into thin air. It was the first time I'd actually witnessed it, him usually preferring to do it when my back was turned. It was the weirdest thing, him being there one second and gone the next, my mind swearing that it didn't happen, that I was seeing things. I reminded myself that he was dead, he could do that sort of thing.

I checked the door, making sure it was locked, and headed upstairs. I walked into the kitchen, seeing Moira wiping down the counters.

"Hello, madam," she said as I walked into the room.

"Hey," I replied, opening up the refrigerator and examining the contents.

"Do you want me to warm you some soup? It always makes me feel better when I've had a bad day."

"Sure," I said, closing the door and taking a seat on one of the bar seats beside the island in the center of the kitchen.

She moved about, pulling the ingredients out and started to work. I watched her do so, trying to memorize the steps so I could try to recreate it later.

"Your father told me what happened before he went back to work," she explained, eyeing me over her shoulder.

"Yeah, well, shit happens,"

"May I speak freely, Josie?"

"Yeah I guess."

She put the large spoon down on the counter and turned to me, "I really enjoy having you and your family here in this house. But I worry that something is going to happen to one of you. This house…people don't survive inside of it long. It takes everyone, from the young up to the old and Tate, well, he's an emotional young man. He's capable of anything."

"He wouldn't hurt me."

"Maybe not on purpose, but that wouldn't stop him from snapping and losing control like he did when he was alive."

I took a minute to consider her words, remembering the talk that I'd had with Mandie and how concerned she'd been for me. They were both right, he wasn't completely sane. There was something in him that was evil, something that killed those people and made him stay here in this house to haunt it. I knew that, but there was also something good there. Something that made me happy when I was around him, made that stupid smile creep up onto my face when he was around. Something that convinced me that he wouldn't hurt me, every time someone else said he would.

I shook my head, "I don't want to hear it."

"I just want you to understand that he's not the only one here in this house. There are others that could be even more dangerous. He and I can only watch out for you so much."

"I appreciate your concern, Moira, thank you."

I could see the worry cross over her face and she picked up the bowl and handed it to me, "Here sweetie, I hope you like it."

"Thank you."

I sat in silence as I ate the soup, feeling a lot better once it was finished. I stood up to leave the room, nodding at Moira as I passed her. She was cleaning up the last part of her mess, but she stopped to address me, "Josie?"

"Yeah?"

"If you find yourself intimate with Tate again, just please be careful okay?"

"Yeah, sure," I replied, continuing out the door to avoid the topic going further.

I found myself in my room soon after, making my way through the stack of papers that loomed before me, feeling defeated before I even began.

"Uggggg," I growled and laid my head down on the desk. My history homework stared back at me. It was so boring and awful and I just couldn't stand it anymore, "Someone murder me please."

I pulled myself up from the hard wood, leaning back in my chair and stretching my arms. This was going to be a long night. I didn't really give a shit about what happened in the early 1900s and I didn't want to write this stupid paper. A small movement at the edge of my short plaid boxers made me jump, swatting at what I assumed was a fly landing on me.

_Gross._

I pulled out my laptop and pushed the on button, hoping typing would make the paper come out faster. That stupid school should give me break. Making me make up the work I missed because I'd had an emotional breakdown didn't make me feel like they really cared. I pulled up my document writer and began to type.

That's when I felt the feeling on my thigh again, cold as it trailed upwards and underneath my shorts, caressing the skin underneath the soft fabric. It moved higher, resting on my most private parts and stroking me there. I closed my eyes, biting my lip to hold back the intense sensations taking me over. When I could finally pry my eyes open, I looked downwards, seeing nothing there, but still feeling this fantastic movement underneath my boxers. Touching me, making me limp in the chair and forget about my homework.

"Tate," I whispered, running my hand through my black hair and leaning back in the seat. I felt the fabric of my shorts sliding down my thighs and I lifted myself up, allowing them to be trailed down to the ground, the soft caress climbing up my leg again. I moaned, letting the cold feeling take me over, the hair on my neck standing up as I closed my eyes and let this pleasure take me over. My breath accelerated as I felt a familiar wetness against me, teasing and moving in quick circles. I fluttered my eyes open softly, seeing now the black eyes gazing up at me, the pale hands gripping my thighs as he peered at me.

"That feels amazing."

"Mmmmmm," he replied, mouth on me, sending me out of control as I spasmed around him, my hands going down to grab a handful of his blonde waves.

He was driving me crazy, but helping me forget about this horrible day. Forget that I'd lost it at school. Losing myself in Tate, knowing that it was a safe place to be. Knowing that he wouldn't let anything happen to me.

"Shit, Tate," I said again, trying to pull him up to me but feeling him struggle to keep the grasp on my legs until I lost control of my body, shuddering under him and crying out his name.

He rose up on his knees, pushing me and the chair back and onto the floor as he fumbled for the zipper on his pants. He crawled up over me, wrapping his hands in my hair and forcing me back away from the chair.

"Are you scared of me?"

"No," I breathed.

"Tell me yes," he growled, sending chills down my body as he pressed that long length onto me.

"Uhhh, Tate," I moaned, not being able to comprehend the urgency coming from me as he loomed over me.

He stood up, picking me up in one swift scoop and carrying me over to me bed. He tossed me down on to my stomach, pulling me back by the ankle until I was pressed against him. He grabbed my hair and encouraged me back up against the front of him, molding my body along his. He kissed my shoulder, back onto my neck and down the top of my spine, nibbling, pulling at things lower in my body and making me squirm under him.

He gave my hair a sharp tug, "Josie, please."

"Okay, Tate, I'm terrified please just fuck me," I begged, not caring if I sounded like an idiot, wanting to give in to him, and moving back against him and rubbing myself along him.

I heard him give an excited laugh as he grasped my hips and pushed himself into me, causing me to cry out his name underneath him. He pushed my face down on the bed, moving fast and desperate above me, cold skin working against mine. He lowered his face down to my neck, biting the skin there, sucking at him, taking it into his body as I quivered under him. I closed my eyes, losing myself in Tate, letting him rule my body as his breath came in fast sweeps, calling my name and giving one last plunge before he pulled back.

"Don't stop now," I begged, turning over to look up at him and wrapping my legs around him.

He looked down at me, pain crossing over his eyes, "I don't want to hurt you, Josie, god. We need to stop. I can't…uggghgngng"

He moaned, closing his eyes as I grabbed him with my hand, pressing myself to him and feeling him grow hard again under my grasp. I wasn't done. I needed this. I didn't care how much it cost me. Cost him. In this moment, it was just him and me, his blonde hair wet against his forehead as he looked down at me, fighting to take control of the situation. I could smell the sex on his skin as I ran my hands along his shoulders, pulling myself up to lick his collarbone, bite him there.

He shook his head, trying to clear the dirty thoughts from his mind I was sure, "Josie, really. We need to take a break."

I grabbed his hair, pulling him down towards me and pressing his mouth to me, "Don't make me beg, Tate."

I could hear him fighting with himself, arguing as he pulled away from me, getting up off the bed and walking across the room. His pants were threatening to drop away from his body, cringing at his knees as he struggled to keep them up. He ran his hand through his hair, shaking his head and cursing out loud.

Standing up from the bed, I didn't care what I had to do to get him back onto the bed with him. I knew he liked to be in control, liked to see me desperate and needy in his hands. It didn't take me long to figure out what I needed to do. I grabbed one of my dark ribbons and wrapped it around my wrists, walking over to him and moaning his name, placing the material into his hand before falling to my knees.

I could see the indecision cross his face as he looked down at me. Longing to give in to the darkness in him but fighting to remain in control, not wanting to hurt me. I grabbed his calves, kissing the skin there and moving up his thigh, hearing his breath coming in short fast spurts through his sexy lips. I ran my hand up him, enfolding my fingers around him and moving back and forth. I wanted to be whatever he needed. Anything to erase that part of him that was regretful, sad, confused.

"Shit, Josie, are you trying to drive me crazy."

I smiled, letting go of him and finding his hand, giving the ribbon a slight pull and gasping out for him. He moaned, pushing me back onto the hard floor and lowering his body to mine, not bothering to arouse me further as he slammed into me, a loud "Tate," coming from my mouth and echoing throughout my room.

The iPod turned up louder, drowning out my screams as he grasped the slick material, pulling my hands up over my head and driving into me over and over until I couldn't stand it anymore, crying out his name and asking him if maybe we should stop. He was starting to scare me.

But he didn't.

He continued to move against me, ribbon tight in his hand as he drove in and out of me. His eyes grew dark above me, that frightening glare taking over his face as he moved against me. Hard and emotionless. I pushed at him, trying to snap him out of it, but he grabbed my face, forcing me to look at him.

"I'm dangerous, don't you see," he gasped, eyes rolling back in his head and closing as he screamed my name, "I don't want to. Ugggggg. God, Josie. Stop, get out of my head! Ugggh."

I closed my eyes, fighting the pulsating feeling between my legs as he let go of the ribbon and pulled my arms around him. I was burning under his touch, turned on more than I could stand, confused by his words, but not caring as the pleasure rode over me again, gripping both of us and making us scream out and fall to the floor.

The heaviness of him drifted over me. I could feel him sigh, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I insisted, trying to pull myself out from under him, beginning to freak out over his loss of control.

He looked down at me, reaching up to run a gentle finger along my chest, "God, did I do this to you?"

He must he discovered that hard line of hickeys going down my skin that Mandie had seen earlier.

I nodded, unsure if wanted him to know. He hadn't hurt me. Not really. It looked worse than it had felt. But he was pulling away, removing himself from me and walking across the room.

"Shit, Josie. This can't happen again," he said.

"Don't mess this up, please," I begged, fighting my legs to get up and cross the room to him. My legs felt like Jell-O, making each step a struggle until I reached him, falling onto him and pushing him against the wall.

"I love you, I don't want to hurt you," he said, pushing a stray strand of hair away from my face, "I loose myself sometimes."

"You haven't hurt me," I said, meeting his eyes and trying to make him understand.

I crawled back up on to the bed, his cold hand in mine, and pulled him up on to it with me.

"Lock the door," I ordered.

The quick click of the door showed me that he complied, falling down onto the mattress with me, "Are you sure you are okay?"

"I'm fine," I said, cuddling up with him and falling asleep to the feel of him against my back, the cold making the hair on my body stand up. He tucked me under the covers, planting kisses in my hair until I passed out.


	9. Chapter 9

When I woke up the next morning, I was starving. I hadn't ate since Moira made me soup and I was absolutely ravenous. I sat up, feeling the ache rising in my body, sore from head to toe. Looking over to my clock, I could see where it was 9 AM, meaning that I was late for school. I didn't care. I was planning on skipping out today anyway, getting a three day weekend. I rolled over, dropping my feet to the floor and feeling the pain shoot through my thighs. Man he'd been rough last night.

I glanced back over my shoulder, seeing Tate's closed eyes, his curls plastered still in a wet mess over his forehead and on my pillow. I wasn't sure if he was asleep or not, but I needed to talk to my father if he was still here.

That throbbing between my legs pounded as I took the first few steps over to my closet to grab my robe. I reached up to retrieve it and wrap it around myself before I walked over to the door. I froze, taking in the deep bruises along my collarbone and down my chest on my reflection in the mirror. The ones I had already seen. I turned around and peered over my shoulder, seeing the newly formed hickeys along the back of my neck, down my spine to the center of my back.

How could something that felt so good look so horrible the next morning?

I dropped my robe, deciding that it was not hiding the marks there and grabbed my turtleneck from the night before. I pulled it over my head, leaving me in my short boxers and walking slowly down the hallway.

My father was already gone for work, leaving a note for me:

_I know you've slept in late today. It's okay, I wanted you to have this extra day off to feel better. I love you if you need anything just call._

_Love Dad_

"What a loving father," I heard, turning on my heels to see the older blonde woman standing in the doorway of my kitchen.

"Mrs. Langdon," I said, nodding at her and walking over to the coffee machine.

She took a seat at my kitchen counter, like this was her own home. And I guess at one point it was.

"What do you want?" I hissed, reminding myself at the shitty parenting she had given my lover. My protector. My Tate.

"I take it you've found out about my boy."

I scowled at her, not wanting to engage in conversation, "What's it matter to you?"

"He's sensitive, my boy, I don't' want to see him hurt."

"I think you've done enough damage," I growled.

"I was a good mother. I couldn't help what he became."

"You're so full of shit."

"What's going on?" I heard Tate ask, coming into the room and putting a protective hand on my shoulder.

"I brought her some cupcakes," Constance said, pushing her plate closer to me.

Tate snarled, "She doesn't want those." He pushed the plate and dessert to the floor, taking my hand and trying to pull me out of the room.

"Come on, Josie."

I pulled back against his hand, "Get out of my house, Constance."

She shrugged her shoulders and backed up towards the door, closing it behind her. I pulled out of Tate's grip, locking the door and turning back to him, "Don't let her get to you."

"I won't," he said, shaking his head and pulling me into a long, deep kiss.

I followed him back up to my bedroom, letting him lead me by his hard cold hands, until he shut the door behind us and sat down on my bed, "Are you sure I didn't take it too far?"

"I'm sure," I said, crossing over to my desk and grabbing my phone to check my messages.

_Hey girl, just checking in to make sure you are safe. _3 PM, on the dot.

_Josie? Answer me please. Making sure you are alive. _5 pm.

_JOSIE! Are you okay?! _7 PM

_If you don't answer me, I'm coming over there or calling the police. _8:30 AM.

"Shit," I mumbled, fumbling to send a message back to her.

_I'm fine, just had a long night. _

I felt Tate's presence around me before he laid his chin on my shoulder and wrapped his arms around me from behind, "I could stay here with you forever."

"That's a long time," I said, closing my eyes as he trailed kisses down my neck.

"It is so worth it." he said, closing the distance and pulling me into his cold, loving embrace.

* * *

I woke up from my nap to an empty room. My iPod was still playing over the dock, Kirk Cobain singing into my ears as I pulled myself up from the bed. It reminded me of Tate, reminded me that he wasn't alive, that he was stuck in the house. That thought reminded me that my dad wanted to move out, and I still hadn't gotten to talk to him about it. I was going to have to figure out what to tell him. He wasn't going to be easily persuaded.

"I'm not leaving this house," I said out loud to no one.

_You should kill yourself._

I paused and looked around, trying to find the source of that faint whisper. Maybe I'd been hearing things. I moved back over to the center of the room, stretching up to the sky and closing my eyes, feeling my muscles relaxing as I bent over. I let my body give enough to touch my toes.

What was I going to do? If he really insisted on leaving, I'd have to give him a reason to stay. But if he'd made his decision already, he wouldn't change it for me…

Maybe I could buy the house? I'd have to get a job. Between that and school I'd never be home….

That left only one other option…and I wasn't sure I could follow through with it.

I pulled myself upwards and bit my lip. _Tate would never let me_, I thought, walking over to my desk to skip to the next song.

I froze when I reached the dock, seeing a razor blade sitting on my notebook.

_How'd that get there._

Carefully I picked it up and tossed it in the trashcan. I retrieved my backpack from across the room and came back to sit down at my desk. I pulled out my math book and went to sit it down when I noticed the razor back on my table.

_Just do it._

There it was again. That whisper in the empty room, quiet and shaky as it floated over to me, no one around to have spoken it. I realized that time it was a young boy's voice, trying to coax me into slitting my wrists. Reaching down to the razor, I considered it for a moment but then tossed it in the trash again and backed up from desk. I'd been there before and I didn't want to go there again.

"There are other ways," the voice said, louder this time, closer.

I whirled around, seeing the origin of the voice. A young boy was standing across the room, dead look in his eyes, his red hair long to his shoulders, bloody scratching across his face and neck. He was clad in a red and blue striped shirt, tucked into his flare jeans, baseball bat in hand.

"Who-who are you," I asked, stepping back towards the doorway, the fear creeping up into my stomach.

He turned his head slowly to the side, not answering me. He took a couple of slow steps towards me before he raised the bat and started to run at me.

I yelled out, turning on my heels and running out of the room. I ran down the hallway to the bathroom, going inside and locking the door behind me. I cursed under my breath, realizing that a ghost was chasing me and he wasn't going to be stopped by a door. Maybe I could get past him, go outside into the open. Find Tate.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, my face was paler that I'd ever seen it, my blue eyes looking duller than normal, my black hair was askew across my head.

_Do it._

There it was again, that boy's voice. But it was in my head now, not coming from around me. It terrified me, made me back up towards the door so I could leave. My reflection in the mirror twisted, my face lips turning up into a scary smile, one that my real face was not making. I opened my mouth to let out a scream but nothing would come out. I felt my body step forward and reach for the mirror, opening it and pulling out my dad's anxiety meds. I tried to fight it, tried to stop my body from grasping the bottle and popping it open, but I couldn't. That voice was encouraging me again, going on along with my body to try to force me to take the medication.

The first pill plopped out in my hand and I felt myself gain enough will power to shut the lid back and drop it to the counter. This broke the hold on me and I was able to breathe on my own again, move on my own.

I grabbed for the knob of the door, twisting it to no avail. It wouldn't move, just wiggled under my hand. I grabbed it with my second hand, trying to scream for help but still nothing would come out. Where was Tate? He said he'd keep me safe, not let anything happen to me.

A loud chuckle echoed throughout the tiny space, reverberating off the walls and into my very soul. My body began to shake, fear gripping at me as I realized I really was not alone. I turned around slowly, hoping not to see anyone else in the room with me. I didn't see anything until I looked up at the mirror.

My hand flew up over my mouth, covering the shriek of panic coming from me. There was a reflection of the same young boy in the mirror, but his shirt was striped different, green and blue instead of red and blue. He was laughing, his green eyes looking at me as the water in the tub began running.

"Who are you?" I asked, taking a couple of steps towards the mirror.

"You're such a slut, having sex with a ghost. How nasty."

"Yeah, that's gross," I heard from behind me, that same voice. I turned around, seeing the young boy in red and blue blocking the door from me.

"We just wanna play," he said, looking over at the rising water in the tub and laughing.

There were two of them.

_Shit._

I ran over to the tub and grabbed the knob, turning it until it clicked, but the water continued to spew from the spout.

"Damn it," I mumbled, fiddling with the other one to try and make it stop. The boy moved over to where I was, looming over me and continuing to laugh.

A loud clank caused me to look over my shoulder and see the second boy standing there in the room with me, my roaring hair dryer in his hand.

"Here catch!" he said, throwing it to the first boy.

My heart dropped, fear gripping at me as I prayed he caught it. He did, looking at the expression on my face and cackling as he threw it back at the second boy.

"Stop it! Stop it!" I screamed as he caught it.

He shook his head at me in disagreement and threw it back towards me, this time at my face. I gripped the tub, lowering myself so it wouldn't hit me. Time seemed to slow down as I heard it smack against the wall, screams escaping me as it hit the water. The hair dryer screeched in anger, sinking under the water, and sending electricity towards me in the waves.

"Josie!" I heard Tate exclaim, hands grabbing my waist and pulling me back and away from the tub.

The high pitched sound of the hair dryer's engine died down and the water stopped flowing from the faucet. We were alone in the room now. My whole body started shaking uncontrollably as the realization of how close I'd come to dying hit me.

Tate turned me in his arms, grasping me to him and holding me tight, "Jesus, I thought I'd lost you."

I buried my face in his tan sweater, unable to respond because my voice had seemed to leave me again. I almost died. A ghost tried to kill me. My first interaction with a dead person other than Moira and Tate and I'd came seconds away from dying. If he hadn't grabbed me, I would have been quickly transported to the land of the departed. Forever doomed to live in this house, stuck forever. It was in that moment that I knew I wasn't ready to die.

"I am so sorry it took me so long to get here. My mom showed up in the house again and I was trying to get her to leave. But then I heard you scream and it hit me," he explained, running his fingers through my hair, "Damn bitch was trying to distract me."

"Twins, they were twins," I whispered, still clutching at him as though he were grounding me in this moment, keeping me from going insane.

"I didn't even know you were up from your nap," he said and kissed the top of my head.

My shaking was calming down now, the adrenaline slowly leaving my body as he held on to me, continuing to apologize as if there was something more he could have done.

I pulled back from him and looked up at him, "Dad wants to move out."

"What?"

"Maybe he's right…this place is dangerous."

"I'll talk to those two little shits, I will make sure they all know not to touch you again or I'll…"

I raised a skeptical eyebrow, "What are you going to do? Kill them?"

"I can make their afterlife hell," he said. He leaned down to plant a chaste kiss on my forehead, "I won't ever leave you again."

He certainly meant what he said, following me back into my room and cuddling up with me on the bed until I fell asleep. Followed me downstairs when I got hungry to get a snack, making himself invisible when my dad came into the room. Followed me into my brother's room when I went to play train set with him, leaning against the far wall of the room and observing. Followed me back into my room when I decided I needed to get to work on my homework.

It made me feel safer to have him there, even though it was a bit creepy the way his face could remain absolutely emotionless as he watched me. Almost looking unreal as he stood there, blank stare on his face.

"Tate?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't want to die, Tate. I'm scared. Especially after today, those creepy kids trying to kill me."

"I've told them all to leave you the hell alone. You're mine. All mine."

"I appreciate it, but you can't make them go away."

He searched my face with his dark eyes, "That's all you have to do Josie, just close your eyes and tell them to go away. Tell them and they will."

"Okay," I said, not completely sure that I believed him. It sounded way too easy.. But Tate wouldn't lie to me.

"Listen, I'm going to go grab something. I will be right back okay? Remember what I said."

I nodded and went over to my bed, plopping down on it and putting on my headphones, leaving one dangling so I could hear what was going on around me. I pulled the internet up on my phone and began googling the murder house.

I found a website, obviously done by the same people who owned the touring business in town, with their own tab on the "Murder House". I went through the list of deaths associated with the house, trying to commit the faces and names to memory so I would be more prepared the next time a ghost came at me.

My closet door creaked open, causing me to jerk my head up and peer across the dimly lit room. I felt the fear grip me as I slowly pulled myself up off the comfort of my bed and across the hardwood floor. I had to see who it was. Usually it was Tate here with me alone, but that wasn't a guarantee that was who was here now. Especially since he hadn't made himself known yet.

I saw the dark figure stepping out of my closet, clad from head to toe in a dark leather looking material, only his eyes showing through the black costume. I backed away towards my door as it stepped towards me, eyes locked on mine as it slinked in the darkness. Taking the opportunity to run, I did so, flinging me door open and running down the hallway. I looked back over my shoulder to see it following me, walking slowly but somehow keeping up with me as I ran down the stairs, skipping every other one as I went. I bounded into the lower level of the home, slamming the basement door behind me and breathing heavily as I found the bottom of the staircase.

"Tate! Help!" I exclaimed, throwing myself against the far wall and trying to control myself. I was scared to death. I didn't know who or what was after me, but if he would just show up, I thought I'd be safe.

I heard a deep laughter in the darkness, the lights flashing on to reveal the man in black and going off again. Before I knew it, he had a hold of me, pressing me back against the cold damp wall as the florescent light came on in a dim haze.

"Please don't hurt me," I begged, cringing under the touch of the man in the costume, realizing that it was rubber that was caressing my cheek, moving down my body and cupping my sex.

My mouth went dry, screams bubbling up in my throat and escaping for a second, only to be quieted when the figure clamped his hand over my mouth. He threw his head back, laughing again as he reached one hand up to unzip the back of the mask. I growled when I saw the face being revealed under it. Tate, with his blonde hair slick with sweat against his head, brushing it aside with his free hand as he lowered his face to me and asked me in a deep sexy voice, "Are you scared now?"

I nodded under his hand, even though I felt the fear subsiding from me, more of an excitement rising in me as he pushed my skirt out of the way and picked me off the floor, wrapping my legs around him. He slowly licked the line of my jawbone, settling into my ear and taking my lobe into his mouth, twirling it around and breathing cold air into the sensitive skin, causing me to close my eyes and moan into his hand.

"You're so sexy when you're afraid and wet because of me, Josie," he whispered, reaching down to unzip the fabric at his hips, "You make me so hard. It's painful."

He groaned as he freed himself, rigid and ready as he pressed against me. I enfolded his neck in my arms, supporting myself best I could against the wall. He had barely touched me but I was so ready for him when he entered me, moans coming from me as he moved slowly against me.

His hands moved down my body, clutching my hips and steadying me more against the wall as he took me slowly, sensually, building the heaviness inside of me, his hand still over my mouth as he buried his head into my neck and kissed me. He moved his hand to support himself against the wall as his other hand gripped me and kept me from falling to the floor.

"Tate," I gasped, "Harder please."

I felt him move quicker inside of me, smacking me back against the hard stone wall and making me cry out.

"Shit, are you okay?" he asked, pulling back and looking at me.

"Yeah I'm fine, please don't stop," I begged, grabbing a handful of his hair and drawing his face back to mine. I kissed him roughly, exploring his mouth with my tongue and moving my hips in his hands, grinding against him as he sped up the pace again. It wasn't long before I was crying out in his arms, clutching to him like he was the only thing in the world. He let out a final moan and fell against me, pressing us back up against the wall.

"You didn't say it."

"What?"

"You didn't tell me to go away when you saw me coming after you," he explained, lowering us to the floor.

"Oh I forgot."

"Shit, Josie, you can't forget stuff like that. It's important."

He reached out to run his finger down my face and I closed my eyes, feeling the cold rubber, "Okay, Tate. I won't."

* * *

_Ding dong._

"I'll get it!" I exclaimed, adjusting the purple scarf around my neck and taking a last look at myself in the mirror the following day. I'd thrown on one of my favorite casual black dresses, leggings, and boots and was super excited to get out of the house. I ran towards the front door and flung it open.

The bright green eyes on the other side lit up as Mandie smiled at me, "Hiya!"

"Hey! Wanna come in?"

She looked past me into the house, and looked around, shaking her head, "Nah, I think I'm good. You ready to go get some yogurt?"

"Do you really have to ask? Let me remind my dad, I'll be right back."

"Okay!" I heard her say from the doorway, still not entering the house.

I found him in the study, a book in hand and Dillon playing with his cars on the floor, "Dad, Mandie's here. We're still going to spend the day together."

"Sure," he said, not looking up from his book.

Dillon jumped up, running over to me and throwing his arms around me, "Have fun Sissy I love you."

"I love you too, sweetie," I responded, leaning over to plant a kiss on his head before running back to the door.

Mandie was standing on the porch, peering inside the house like she was looking for something when I grabbed my coat, "Alright here we go!"

Her eyes went around me and she pointed into the room, "I don't think he's in agreement."

I looked over my shoulders, seeing Tate standing there with an unhappy look on his face. I waved at him and blew him a kiss, stepping onto the other side of the door and shutting it behind me, "He will be fine."

"He's looking uber creepy these days," she commented as we walked down the pavement to her car.

"That's just cause you know he's dead."

"Why weren't you in school yesterday?"

"Because I overslept."

She pushed the button on her keys, unlocking our doors, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," I insisted, settling myself into the leather seat and putting on my seatbelt.

I saw her looking past me and up at the house as she pulled away from the house, "Does he always do that?"

"What?" I asked, following her gaze to see Tate standing in one of the upper story windows. I waved at him, "He just worries about me."

"Worries that someone else will kill you before he can."

"Shut up."

"It's the truth."

I rolled my eyes, "He's not going to hurt me."

She looked over at me, "Let me see your neck."

"No."

"Yes," she said, grabbing for the scarf that was wrapped around my neck. She'd die if she saw the new bruises along the back of my neck, trailing down my spine.

I grasped at the fabric for dear life, "Would you drive?"

"Let me see."

"Eyes. On. The. Road."

She growled, turning to focus on the road ahead of her, "I think you should move out of that house."

"My dad's determined to I think, after the breakdown I had on Thursday."

"It was pretty fierce."

"I don't know how I will show my face in that school again."

"I'm sure they will have stopped talking about it by the time you come back to school Monday," she said, trying to convince me that things were going to be fine as she pulled into the yogurt shop.

"Uggg is it that bad?"

"It's pretty bad."

I sighed loudly, getting out of the car and following her into the shop. I picked out my favorite chocolate fudge yogurt and piled it to the brim with unhealthy candy pieces, "I'm going to eat my weight in filth. Prepare myself for Monday."

Mandie laughed, making up her healthy low fat yogurt and fruit bowl, "Don't worry, I think you could take all of those preppy shits if you needed to."

"It's not worth it," I said, handing the cashier money, "They can laugh all they want. I'm not going to fight them."

"And the peacemaker speaks," she smiled, following me to our favorite place in the corner of the shop. "See that's why I think you'd be better off finding someone _alive._ You deserve someone who is going to take care of you. Love you. Someone less crazy."

I took a large bite of my dessert, closing my eyes and enjoying the taste of heaven, "Tate does love me. I really think he does. I know it doesn't make any sense. He protects me. He's saved me when…"

"When what?!"

I shouldn't have opened my big mouth, "Well, some of the other ghosts decided they should um…try to kill me. And he saved me."

"Are you freaking serious!? Josie, you gotta get out of there. It's not safe."

"I'll be fine."

"He can't be there with you all the time."

"Maybe," I said, gazing out the window and trying to figure out how to change the subject. I jumped when I saw the man across the street staring at us, half of his body badly scared with what looked like burn marks.

Mandie noticed my freaked out facial expression and followed my gaze, "That guy looks familiar."

I nodded, "Yeah and he's watching us awfully intently."

He took off his hat, putting it out in front of him and giving a slight bow, smiling as he replaced the brown thing back on his head.

"Maybe we should go…"

"No I want to know what his problem is," I said, finishing off my yogurt and tossing the cup.

I heard Mandie give an exasperated sigh as she did the same, "I'm not letting you go see that random man by yourself."

I continued out the door, checking for cars before crossing the street, my friend on my heels.

"Hi, Miss Summers," he said as I stepped in front on him, taking in the grotesque cloudy eye and burns cars covering the left side of his body.

"How do you know my name?"

"I do my research on all the new families in the house."

"Why are you watching us? I've seen your car driving past my house quite I bit," I said, motioning to the older car in the parking lot. I could feel my irritation grow into more of an anger as I glared at him. No one messed with my family.

"I used to live in that house. It took me six months to start hearing voices…before I burned my family alive. Before I was put in jail until recently, when they discovered that I had brain cancer."

"That sucks for you," I said, concern for my family creeping up my spine, "I don't really care, you need to stay away from our house."

He laughed, loud and returned those eyes to me, "I was coming to warn you that you should leave that house. It's not what it seems."

"Josie…" Mandie said, trying to get me to leave I was sure. But I wanted to know that this guy wanted and why he's been looking into my family. I had to make sure they would be safe.

"I know your dad has been looking to sale the house the past few days and you need to let him. Don't let your feelings for _that boy_ get in the way."

"I don't know what you are talking about," I hissed.

"Oh but you do. I see the way he watches you leave for school. Out the top story window, your bedroom. Where he used to live. Where he was shot."

"You must be hallucinating. The fire must have gone to your brain."

"Oh, harsh," he said, "Tell that to your dead boyfriend. He's the one that did this to me."

_What._

"Oh-oh my god, you're Larry Harvey. But I thought…I thought you were dead," I stammered, shocked to realize why this man had looked so familiar to both me and Mandie.

"That's why you kids shouldn't believe everything you read."

"Do you know why…why he shot all of those kids?" I demanded, grabbing the lapel of his black suit.

He pulled back, "Feisty one huh? I see why he likes you, but no, I don't know why."

"Then you're no use to me. Leave me and my family alone or I will get the police involved."

"Fine, it's your funeral," he said with a wave of a hand and left.

"The nerve of that man," I growled as Mandie grabbed my hand and pulled me back towards the car.

"He's really creepy. You should probably tell your dad just in case. But hey, that's one less murder that Tate committed right?"

_Sure._


	10. Chapter 10

Mandie dropped me off at home later that afternoone and I skipped up to the house, happy to see that my father's car was gone. I was hoping maybe he'd taken Dillon with him so I could have some alone time in the house. Well as much as alone meant with a house full of ghosts. I closed the door behind me, and dropped the key in the pocket of my jacket. Reaching up to hang the coat on the coatrack, I felt a slight breeze as if someone walked past me. I put up the jacket and looked around, seeing no one else in the room with me. I kicked of my shoes and left them under the coat and walked away in my socked feet.

I crossed into the other room, plopping down on the couch and stretching out with the remote. Flipping on AMC, I found the old black and white Dracula and let out a squeal of excitement. I loved old movies, especially the old horror ones. He was so sexy, so dangerous, so…

_Tate._

I felt that familiar aching in my stomach, that need to set my eyes on the blonde haired ghost, make sure that he wasn't a figment of my imagination. My brain telling me that none of this could be real, it wasn't feasible. Maybe I was crazy, definitely for pushing aside that darkness in him and focusing on who is was around me, but maybe for believing that any of this could really be happening. But it was that feeling in my heart, the one where it fluttered and almost flew off without me when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck standing up on end. I closed my eyes as the chills made their way down my hair line and ended at the bottom of my spine.

I opened my eyes just in time to see Tate catapulting over the back of the couch and landing in the seat beside me, smile spreading across his face, "Boy I missed you."

He leaned over and kissed me softly on the lips, making the wings of the butterflies beat even harder, pounding in my heart as he moved his lips over mine. He wasn't even touching me, and it was enough to blur my thoughts. I reached out to him, wanting to close the distance between us, and gripped his plaid shirt, feeling the rough texture of it under my fingers. He laughed deep in his chest and I felt him disappear from under my hands.

My eyes flew open, searching through the room for him and hearing him speak from behind me, "Did you miss me?"

I laid my head back on the couch and looked up at him, "Maybe."

He bent down and took my face in his hands, kissing me again, more deeply this time. His hands didn't move from me but I could feel some ghostly energy trickling down my neck, moving the scarf over enough to continue to trail down my chest. I let the soft mewing sounds escape me as it continued downward, caressing me through my dress as he held me tight.

Then it was gone, along with Tate and I was left breathless on the couch. I pulled myself back up and saw him perched on the coffee table in front of me, still grinning from ear to ear, "What about now?"

"No, you're a tease."

"I love you."

_I love you too. _I wanted to say it, knew it was truer every day that I spent with him, but still not completely willing to say it out loud. That would make it real. That I was in love with a ghost. A crazy, possibly psychotic ghost.

I decided on, "I might kill you if you weren't dead already."

"Is that a homicidal threat?" he asked, lowering himself to the floor and onto his knees, slithering over to me from where he was.

I could feel my breathe coming quicker now, my heart pounding in my chest, seeing his smile fade to something more sinister, something anyone in their right mind would be running from, "I, uh, maybe?"

He curled the side of his lip into a wicked smile as he reached my legs, running his hands up the inside of them. His eyes didn't leave mine as his hands found my thighs, pushing them to either side of him so he could place himself in between them.

"You wouldn't hurt a fly."

"I would so, they are nasty creatures."

He ran his hands around my waist, pulling me to him and kissing me roughly, intently, like he would swallow me down, take me into the darkness with him. My hands moved around him, pushing his shirt up enough to grasp the cold, hard skin there, hoping that he couldn't leave me now. I dug my nails in slightly for reassurance. He groaned into my mouth, making my skin grow hotter at the sounds, only feeling the cold where his fingers traced up my leg slowly. Tate's fingers found the tops of my leggings and slowly pulled them down my legs, breaking the kiss long enough to remove then and shove them underneath the couch. He sat back up on his knees, kissing me again, and holding the back of my neck with one hand, the other trickling back up my thigh and curving around me.

Damn it, he was so good at what he was doing. He knew just what to do to make me writhe under me, make me want more and more of him. He clouded my mind, made me forget the world around us, the haunted house, the other ghosts in the house. They had to hate us, seeing us so happy and engaged in one another. Had to be jealous of the way he was pulling back and looking at me, love and lust rolled into one dark stare.

"You never fail to amaze me, always so ready and willing," he whispered, moving his lips to my neck and breathing along it.

_Shit._ The coldness of the air moved along me, meeting the heat of my skin and making me shudder against him. He was being gentle with me, taking his time to run his hands along every inch of my body as if he'd never touched me before. I reached up to his face, cradling it in my hand and bringing his mouth back to mine. Deepening the kiss, I wrapped my legs around him and forced him to me. I wanted him so badly and he was driving me crazy with the way he was playing around on my skin as if I would break.

"Tate, please," I mumbled against his mouth, dropping my hands to his shirt and undoing the buttons as quickly as I could. He took his hands off of me long enough to drop the shirt to the ground, leaving him in his tight white t-shirt, the material stretching across his chest. His mouth never left mine. He didn't answer my pleas as they continued to leave my mouth, just moved that knowing hand back onto me and making me tremble in delight. I felt him tangle his free hand in my hair, pulling my face as close as he could to me, the kiss becoming rougher as his fingers became more urgent.

"God you're drenched, Josie. It's so hot," he said.

"Come on, Tate, please," I begged again, lowering my hand to the front of his jeans, gripping him and feeling how ready he was.

"Mmmmmm," he groaned, fingers tightening even more in my hair and causing me to cry out. I could feel him hard and pulsating underneath his jeans. I moved my other hand down to his pants, undoing them as quickly as possible and setting him free. I ran my finger along him, fighting the urge to take him here and now, letting him keep the control and see how far he'd go before he gave in.

But touching him only made him speed up his movements against me, bringing me to that boiling point. I wasn't going to last much longer if he kept moving like this. Kept moving those cold lips along my jaw, down my neck, and sucking on that sweet spot underneath my ear. That was it, that's when I lost myself, the pressure inside me bursting over and making me scream his name.

"Yes, Josie, that's it, come baby," he said, satisfied with himself and coaxing me on. I continued to move underneath his touch until I fell limp against him and planted small, helpless kisses on his neck. But he wasn't through with me.

He picked me up off the couch and I wrapped my arms around him, giggling as he twirling me around, "You're so beautiful. I love you."

"You're amazing," I breathed, struggling to find the words to express what I was feeling right now. It wasn't what I wanted to say, but it was what I was comfortable with, something more harmless than those three little words. I hoped it didn't hurt him, every time he confessed his love for me and I gave him something other than the same.

He didn't seem to mind right now as he lowered my body to the other couch and climbed on top of it with me. His lips found mine and his hands jerked me underneath him, encouraging my legs to stay up and around him. I ran my hands through his hair, feeling the soft texture of his bushy blonde waves, satisfied to be here with him alone. I closed his eyes as he pressed his body to mine, entering me excruciatingly slow.

"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit Josie," he said as he began to move back and forth, showering me with kisses and planting his right hand firmly on the couch arm behind my head. His other hand moved along my body, caressing me and scratching me lightly. I gripped his back with one of my hands, running the other along his arm, the muscles working there to keep his grip and give him leverage to move a little faster. The desperate sounds erupted from my mouth again, my body clenching around him and making me quiver.

"I love you, I love you, you're so beautiful, so wonderful. You give me hope, Josie. Shit, you feel so good."

I heard the approaching sound of car, signaling that my dad had made it home, "Crap, Tate."

"It's okay," he cooed.

"No, but my dad's home."

"Shhh, I know."

My objections were lost into frenzied cries as he started moving faster, gripping my hip with his free hand to keep me still on the couch and pounding into me. I felt my hands freeze on his arms, struggling to keep a hold of him and digging my nails into his arms, "Tate, uhhh, Tate, yes."

"Shhhhhh," he whispered, lips twisting into that adorable boyish grin of his as if he were totally in control of his body, in control of me, of us.

I screamed out for him, digging into his back harder as he continued to slam into me. The distant sound of the car door closing as Tate shook his head and moved his hand from the couch arm and placed it over my mouth.

"You have to be quiet," he insisted, losing that smile and replacing it with that look that made my stomach flip. The one that meant he was getting close. His eyes closed, his sexy mouth falling open and letting my name escape it. His body struggled to keep up with his movements, faltering and letting out a final exclamation as he lost himself in the pleasure. He dragged me down with him, screaming out under his palm until he fell down on top of me, both of us breathless on the couch. He kissed me sweetly on the forehead and told me he loved me before disappearing into nothingness. The feeling of him being there, sweaty and slightly warm on top of me, filling me up, and then the suddenness of him being gone was like a shock to my system. I sat up abruptly, snapping back into reality and hearing the keys in the lock on the door. I grabbed my scarf and wrapped it around my neck, straightening my clothes and plopping back down on the couch like I'd been sitting there all along.

My dad walked in seconds later, "Hey honey."

_Holy crap that was close. _

"Uh, hi Dad," I replied, lowering myself even further down in the couch and hoping he'd go away.

"How was your day with Mandie?" he asked, coming to sit down on the couch opposite from me.

"Fine."

"Have you been working out?"

"What? No!" I scrambled, the blush rising up in my cheeks. I pulled my scarf up onto my face, trying to hide my horrified expression.

"Oh, well, what did you girls do?"

"Ya know, girl stuff. Talked about boys, ate lots of yogurt."

He crossed his arms and leaned back in the seat, "Speaking of boys. That Tate kid has been hanging around here a lot lately. Are you two dating?"

_Well, if that's what you call it, _"Um, yeah, I guess you can say that."

"He seems like a nice boy. Maybe he can come hang out with us sometime."

I raised an eyebrow, "Are you being for real, right now? Are you crazy?"

The doorbell rang as if on cue.

_That can't be a coincidence. _

"Dad, I was hoping we could talk about moving out of the house?" I said as he walked over to the door and looked through the peep hole.

"Speak of the devil."

"I don't really want to go."

He ignored me and opened the door, smiling at the person at the entrance, "Well hey there, come on in."

"Thanks Mr. Summers," I heart Tate say as he walked through the door. His eyes automatically moved to me and he smiled before turning back to my father, "What's up?"

"I was just talking to Josie about her day."

"I'm sure it's been very _exciting,_" he purred, those black eyes locking onto mine as he walked into the room, smirk on his face for only me to see.

My dad laughed oblivious to what was going on, "As exciting as a day in the life of two teenage girls can get."

I moved over on the couch to make room for Tate to sit, feeling the heat rise up in my face as he sat down. The proximity to him was enough to make my skin heat up again. How was it I was still reacting this way to him? We spent so much time together I should have gotten use to how hot he was. How his blonde hair fell over his forehead and down to the bottoms of his ears. The perfect way his lips were shaped, full and sensual as they moved. The sharp features of his jawline and his nose pulling together something that could be so childish yet so manly rolled into one. Sexy. Dangerous. Tainted. Innocent. My Tate.

He was so charming, the way he was talking to my father as if he'd known him forever, even though he'd only talked to him a couple of times. He was confident in the way he took my hand, right there on the couch with my father sitting across from us, intertwining my fingers in his and running his thumb back and forth across my hand. I fought the urge to close my eyes and savor the moment, not wanting to forget the feel of his easy going touch on me. His hands were strong, manly, but soft and cold against mine, his forearms robust with the veins showing out from under them. His shirt was curled up at the elbows, hiding the rest of his body from me. But I could remember what he had looked like topless above me, hard and-

"Don't you think, Josie?" my dad asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Huh? What?"

I caught the entertained smile on Tate's face, "The house was a really good buy."

"Uh, yes, yes it was. And I think we should stay here."

"I'm telling you, Tate, she was wanting to get the hell out of dodge last week and here she is begging to say. I don't know what you've said to convince her but I believe it's worked."

_It's not so much what he's said._

_Well partly the things he's said._

_But a lot of the things he's done._

"I don't know, Mr. Summers. I just know that I'd be heartbroken if she left," Tate responded, running a cool finger down my cheek. I couldn't help it then, closing my eyes and breathing in deeply. He was just being so freaking sweet. I couldn't tell if it was an extra show for my dad or trying to prove to me that this could work. He could be very persuasive, I knew that. He could lie to you with a straight face and make you believe every single thing that came out of his mouth. I'd seen him do it. It worried me that maybe I was being played for a fool when he was around. But he'd been so determined to get me to trust him, wouldn't he have stopped once he got into my pants?

"Well, we will just have to see how things go. If she goes back to school and doesn't have another break down, maybe we will stay."

"I solemnly swear that I will be good," I said, opening my eyes and begging my dad, "Just please give me the chance. I really like it here."

"We'll see," my dad said simply and stood up, "I guess I will go find something to occupy myself so you guys can talk. Dillon should be home from his friends' house soon. Just let him in if you don't care."

"Sure thing, Dad."

The second he left the room, Tate turned his eyes back to me, "So what do you want to do now?"

"I can think of a few things," I said, smiling at him and wiggling my eyebrows.

He dropped his gaze downward and smiled, big and happy, "I can't believe your dad left me alone with you, I have a feeling you're going to attack me."

"No more than you attacked me earlier."

His hand moved up fast to my face, gripping my chin and making me look at him, "I've never made you do anything you weren't willing to do."

"I know, I was just kidding. Calm down," I said and reached up to stroke his cheek. He leaned down to me and kissed me.

"You wanna finish your movie?" he asked.

"Sure, if you want to."

He nodded and pulled me over to him, leaning me back on his chest and wrapping his arms around me. He rested his chin on the top of my head. I relaxed in his embrace, content to just be hanging out with him. It was nice for this to be out in the open, not hidden in secret like it usually was, "Do you think we should tell my dad?"

"About what?"

"About this house, you."

"No, Josie. You can never tell him what you know. If you did, they'd lock you away and I'd never see you again." I could feel his grip on me tighten, holding me closely to him as if I'd slip away. I heard him sniffle, giving away the fact that those tears were sliding down his pale face. I didn't have to look at him for my heart to lurch forward in my chest, hurting for him.

"It's okay, Tate. I'm not going anywhere," I responded, snuggling up to him and running my fingers up and down his leg until the movie was over.

As the movie went off, I heart a frantic series of knocks at the door. Tate groaned in protest as I got up from the couch, grabbing at my arm to try to pull me back down into his arms. I slapped at him playfully, telling him to stop and walked over to open the door. My little brother rushed into the room, words tumbling out of his mouth like a runaway train.

"He's had a lot of candy," Carla said, bright red lips smiling.

"Sissy, sissy, sissy," Dillon said, now running in circles around me.

I scowled at the woman, "Thanks for nothing."

She walked past me and into the room, looking around as if for something and settling her eyes on my boyfriend, "Well hello there handsome."

"Get your skanky eyes off him," I growled, shutting the door behind me.

"Very well, where's your father?"

"In the study I think."

She stuck her nose up in the air and walked around me, disappearing down the hallway. I grabbed my little brother, stopping him in his tracks, "Stop moving."

"But Sissy! We went to the movies and we went to the park and we had some candy and some ice cream and and," he jumped up and down under my hands, excitement buzzing out of him.

His eyes zipped over to the living room, "Taaaaaate!" He screamed, jerking out from under my grasp and running over to where the young man was sitting on the couch.

"Hey buddy," Tate said, falling back onto the couch as my brother jumped on him.

I leaned against the doorway, fighting every inch of the smile that was spreading on my face. He was so good with Dillon, rolling around on the couch like a little kid and laughing. It was incredibly adorable, the way he let my brother gain the upper hand and fall down onto the floor, begging for mercy. His blonde hair was splayed across the floor, his hands up in a defensive position, my brother tickling him fiercely without remorse.

Dillon jerked his black head up to look at me and I saw the look of excitement in his eyes when he noticed me watching, "You can see him! You can see him!"

I moved my gaze from the boys, looking around the room nervously, "What? Who?"

"Tate! You can see him! I knew it!" he exclaimed, turning to the larger frame and poking him in the chest with his little finger, "You had better be nice to my Sissy."

"No doubt, little man. I'd hate to make you mad."

My brother hopped up to his feet and ran over to me, "Wait till Daddy hears! He can't see Tate."

I bent down to look him in the eyes, letting the importance play over my face, "Daddy has seen Tate okay? Don't tell him he's your invisible friend okay? Cause he's real."

"Okay, okay," he whined, rolling his eyes at me, "Can I go play now?"

"Yes," I said and watched him run away from me.

"He's a tough little dude," Tate said, walking over and wrapping his arm around me.

"You have no idea." I moved myself in his arms until I was facing him, running my hands up his chest and around his neck, "I think we should go listen to some music in my bedroom."

"Yes," he growled. He grabbed for my hand and started walking towards the stairs, his brisk pace pulling me behind him and making me scurry to keep up with him. He let go of me when we reached the stairs and bounded up them, taking several steps at a time. I laughed, hand going to the railing and running up them behind him. He was so much fun. So childlike at times and so full of _life. _Other times he was down and depressed, crying at the smallest things. Others yet he was protective, angry, and dangerous. There were so many sides to him, but this loving fun side was by far my favorite.

"Heeeeeeeelp me!"

I froze, "What was that?"

"Sissy!"

The fear rose up in my body, gripping at my heart and making it pound hard inside of my chest. I tried to make out the direction of the screams, panic filling me up and making it hard to concentrate.

"It's coming from his room," Tate said, taking off down the hallway in front of me.

I ran behind him, speeding up as quickly as I could. I could hear him crying loudly and pounding on something. I was scared to death, worried about what was happening to my brother. There were so many negative things that could be happening as we made our way to his room. So many things that could have already happened in the time that we were downstairs.

I pushed past Tate to get into Dillon's room, my eyes searching frantically throughout the room for him and finding nothing, "Dillon?"

"Sissy! I can't get out," he screamed, coming from the direction of his closet. He banged on the door then and I knew he was in there. I ran over to the door, unlocked it, and twisted the knob. It wouldn't budge. I pulled at the handle, jerking it over and over and hearing my brother's desperate cries for help.

Where the hell was my father.

"Tate, do something!" I exclaimed, feeling the tears streaming down my face as I heard things being thrown around the inside of the closet. He was alone in there, in the dark, with something otherworldly. And there was nothing I could do about it. I looked back behind me to beg Tate more, make him stop this craziness. But he was gone.

I heard the commotion in the closet stop, my brother's cries growing silent. I feared for the worse as I yelled out my brother's name, grasping for the doorknob again. It gave under my hand this time and I threw open the door.

My brother was sitting there, cuddled up in the plaid material of Tate's shirt and clinging to him. His head was buried in the older guy's chest, sobs heaving at his shoulders, breathe coming in large hard gasps as he cried. Tate stood up, wearing no emotions on his face. He picked up my brother and whispered to him that everything was going to be okay. I ran over to them and threw my arms around both of them.

"It's okay, Dillon, you're safe now."

He twisted in Tate's arms and grabbed for me, wrapping his limbs around my body, "Sissy. It was the bad woman. She wanted me to go with her."

I ran my hand through his black hair, trying to comfort him as I walked over to his small bed and sat down. I rocked him back and forth and tried to make him feel better. Tate followed us out into the open, crossing his arm and leaning against the wall. I raised my eyebrows at him, wanting to know who had done this to my brother. He shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't know and I glared at him over Dillon's shoulder. I knew he knew what was going on. I knew he knew who it was that had trapped my brother in the closet and wanted to claim him as their own. He knew this house. He knew the inhabitants of it and that innocent look on his face didn't fool me. Why was he lying to me? I thought we were past this.

When Dillon calmed down and was able to breathe normally again, I took him to get ready for bed without a word to Tate. I sat in the bathroom with him as he took a bath and played with his toys, crashing them into each other and making sound effects. I sat there with him, e-reader in hand and flipping through the pages of the recent detective novel I was reading until his fingers were pruney and I had to pry him out of the bathtub. He dried off and put on his SpongeBob feety pajamas and brushed his teeth. Then he took my hand and led me back to his bedroom. He pulled a book off of his shelf and stopped me as I was about to leave, "Read to me?"

I couldn't resist that sweet look that he was giving me and I obliged, tucking him into bed and curling up beside him to read until he fell asleep. I flipped on his nightlight as I left and went back into my room.

Pretending I didn't see Tate lurking in the shadows in the back of my bedroom, I shut the door behind me and walked over to my dresser. I pulled out my black tank top along with my black and red plaid short boxers. Unwrapping the scarf from my neck and laid it across the dresser, I turned my back to where he was watching and slowly bent over to grasp the bottom of my dress. I pulled it up over my head and let it hit the floor, followed by both of my undergarments. Running a slow hand down my body, I let out a soft sound as I caressed down my legs and stepped into my shorts. I pulled them up my body slowly then reached for my tank, doing the same with it.

As I tugged the fabric down over my stomach, I felt Tate standing right behind me. I never heard him move from his place in the darkness. He was just suddenly there, breathing down my neck and brushing my hair to the side, "What are you doing?"

I shrugged and didn't give him an answer, acting as if I didn't know what he was talking about. Like he'd done earlier when I questioned him about who'd locked my brother in the closet. I wasn't very happy with him. I didn't take lightly to being lied to. Actually, I was right on the edge of very pissed off. He didn't understand just how protective I was of my family, and recently that'd even included him.

I walked over to my bed and crawled up on top of it, slow enough to let my shorts ride up me as I made my way up to the pillows. I could feel his eyes on me, watching me as I leaned forward on the bed and stretched my arms out, "Mmmmmmm."

He was on the bed then, grabbing my waist and pulling me back up against him. I could feel the hardness of him, pressing against the small of my back, his mouth running along my shoulder. His hand tangled in my hair, forcing me to lay my head back and look at him.

"What are you doing?" he repeated, free hand trailing down my body and playing along the top of my boxers.

"Nothing," I said innocently, "Who was that in the closet with my brother?"

"I told you, Josie, I don't know."

I shook his mouth off my shoulder, irritation rising in me as the words left his mouth, "Don't lie to me."

"What makes you think I know?" he asked and moved his hand into my shorts. I fought the heat rising in my body as he moved a finger against me. I couldn't let him win this game.

I moved my hand down to meet his, pulling it out of my clothing and placing it back on his leg, "Because you know this house. The ghosts in it. You went in there and you stopped them."

"Can we talk about this later?" he asked as he ran his tongue up my neck and moaned into my ear, sending chills down my spine.

"Noooo," I insisted, coming out as more of a pleasure sound than an objection.

He breathed in my ear again, laughing and making me shiver, "Please?"

"Don't play games with me, Tate," I growled, trying to pull myself away from him. I was unsuccessful because of his hand in my hair, jerking me back up to him as I almost got away.

"You started this, Josie. You're going to have to finish it."

"Tell me who was in the closet with Dillon. I'm not playing around," I said, reaching up behind me to jumble my fingers in his hair and pull his mouth to mine.

He kissed me urgently, not wasting any time before moving his tongue into my mouth. He tugged at my hair and a small cry came out of my mouth into his. This seemed to urge him on and his hand went to my waist, turning me in his arms until I was facing him, "I can't think straight with you making those noises. If you want me to answer your questions, you're going have to shut up."

"What noises?" I asked, running my lips across his face and burying them in his ear as I let his name leave my mouth, low and needy, "Taaaaaate."

He let go of my hair and grabbed my waist with both hands, slamming me down on the bed and pulling me underneath him. A short string of obscenities flew from his mouth as he followed me down onto the bed and pressed himself against me. I pushed at his chest to give me some room, try to clear my head as he ground his pelvis against me, his hand moving underneath my top to work their magic. He wouldn't budge. My breathing was speeding up and I had to bite hard on my lip to keep from letting the whimpers escape me. He was right, I'd started this. However, I was hoping I could start seducing him and then turn him down if he wouldn't give me the truth. Use my feminine wiles to get him to spill his beans.

But the tables were turning quickly in his favor as my body betrayed me, grasping at him and yearning to have him naked and dripping against me, his coldness against my heat. He was saying my name again, against the skin of my chest, running his tongue down the fabric there and making me squirm under him. I wasn't going to be able to fight him much longer if he kept this up.

I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him closer to me. Keeping my hands on his chest, I pushed my whole body towards him in an attempt to roll him over. He laughed, "You want to be on top?"

"Yes, Tate, please," I whispered as he looked up to meet my hungry eyes. His eyes reflected that same intense emotion I was feeling. Lust. Passion. Gripping at us and trying to pull us under.

It took him only a second to push against the bed and roll us over, hands going up into my hair to make me kiss me when his back hit the bed. God he was skilled, he was strong, he was delicious.

I really didn't want to end this.

But I needed to know that my family was safe, that no one was going to hurt my brother while I was in here fooling around with Tate. I needed to know why he wasn't being honest with me. I pulled back against his hands but he wouldn't budge.

"Stop thinking," he hissed and kissed me again, hands moving down to push the fabric of my shirt upwards on my body.

"Tate, we need to talk."

"_Not_ _now. Kiss me,_" he demanded.

My body paused for a second, registering his words as they drifted into my ears, into my mind and settling there. It was as if they flipped a switch in my brain, making me want him more. I lowered my lips onto his, kissing him passionately and trying to push the thoughts out of my mind. My hands flew to his shirt, unbuttoning and moving down to his jeans, undoing them as well. I moved my face down his body, planting kisses along it and pausing at the top of his jeans. Letting my eyes travel upwards, I saw him looking down at me, concern on his face.

"What?" I asked.

"It was Nora."

"What was Nora?"

He shook his head, his messy hair shaking about with it, "That had your brother."

"I don't care about that right now," I said, the words flying out of my mouth before I could stop them. What was I thinking? Had I lost all reason here in bed with him? I returned to kissing him, along his dark boxers, fiddling with them and starting to pull them down before he stopped me.

"Shit, Josie, stop."

"Stop?"

"Yes," he growled, letting the frustration show in his voice. He grabbed my hands and pulled me up the bed to him, tucking me in his shoulder. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he repeated, over and over as he stroked my hair.

I felt a desperate need inside me to touch him, to kiss him. So I did, kissing his neck where I could reach and trying to move them up his neck as he pushed me off him.

"Stop, Tate, I just want to kiss you."

"I know, I know. Just stop. I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing and kiss me," I begged, rolling over on top of him again and losing myself in the smell of him, my mouth on his neck.

He groaned underneath him, a mixture of irritation and need as he gripped my shoulders, "It's not that I don't want to. I just. I can't. I messed up."

I paused, lifting my face to look at him, "What do you mean you messed up?"

"You just need some distance and you'll be fine," he said and rolled out from underneath me. He got up off the bed and backed away from it to lean against the wall.

The sudden space between us seemed to clear my head, make me think more rationally. I had started this to talk to him, why was I suddenly so desperate to have his mouth on me and forget about my brother?

"What happened just now?" I asked.

He ran his hands through his hair and the tears started forming in his eyes, "I didn't' mean to sway you. Shit, Josie, it just came out."

It hit me then, what he was talking about. He'd ordered me to kiss him and I had, losing all sense of reality and only focusing on him, on the feel of my mouth on him. He'd influenced my mind, making me do as he asked. I'd read about how ghosts could do that, possess others and make them do what they wanted. I felt my heart fall, dropping to the pits of my stomach and making me feel sick. Like I was going to hurl. He'd mind fucked me. This wasn't cool.

"How dare you!" I exclaimed, picking up my book off the table and hurling it at him. It smacked him with a thud and fell to the floor, "What the hell, Tate!?"

"I didn't mean to, I swear it. I've never done that before. I didn't know I could-I"

"Quit lying to me! I just started trusting you and you're lying to me! You say you don't know who was after Dillon and now you take total control over me? What kind of monster are you?"

He took a small step towards me and the tears continued to roll down his face, "I will tell you anything, just ask me. I'm so sorry. I love you."

"Tate, we've talked about this! No more lies, remember?"

"Yeah I do…I just…I wanted to protect you. Ask me anything, I swear."

"Okay, so you say Nora was in the closet with my brother? Why?" I demanded and crossed my arms.

Tate squinted his eyes closed and scrunched his face in pain, as if it physically hurt him to answer my question, "Because she wants a baby."

_I know that._

"Well, she can't have Dillon."

"No, but I guess that's the closest she thought she could have…considering."

"What do you mean 'considering'."

He hit himself in the head several times before answering, hate filling his words, "Because I promised her one when you guys walked in the door for the first time."

_I promised Nora, one of the ghosts, that I'd get her a baby…_his words from earlier floated to me and it all started making since, "You…you…Is that what all this is about? You don't really love me, you just want to make a baby for your dead ghost friend?!"

"No, no, Josie. I told her that I can't. I told her that I was in love and I couldn't do it. I told her she just needed to get over it. You gotta believe me."

I grabbed another book off my bedside table and threw it at him, hitting him harder this time before it fell to the floor. I shook my head and wrapped my arms around my body, feeling the tears stinging at my eyes now. I slid off the bed and hit the floor myself, curling up my knees to me and laying my head onto it. I'd given him everything, my trust, my love, my time, my body. And all for nothing. All he'd ever wanted was to get me pregnant for that stupid bitch. Constance was right, Moira too. Having relations with Tate was dangerous, a mistake. But I'd been too stupid to see it. Too caught up in his sexiness and his confessions of love to remind myself who he really was. A murderer, a psychopath.

He ran over to me, bending down and taking my hand, "I'm begging you, please believe me."

I jerked my hand back from him, "Don't touch me."

It hurt me to see the amount of pain in his eyes when I scowled at him, broke my heart to be the one making the tears stream down from his eyes.

"Josie."

"How can I trust you, Tate!? Tell me that. How?"

"I-I don't know," he screamed, loud and vibrating through the room, "I was just trying to protect you! The less you know about this shit hole the better. It's miserable here. It always has been, until I saw you. You've brightened my life, brought a spark to this damned place. You make me want to be a better person, I have been. Since you've been here."

"You're so full of shit!" I exclaimed, jumping up and stomping to the center of the room. I paced around it, trying to decide what to do, trying to clear my mind and figure things out. I loved him but I was so angry. It was seeping out of my skin I was sure, oozing down my body and burning a hole in the floor. I needed time alone. I needed to think. And I couldn't do that with him looking at me like a lost puppy.

He walked over to me and fell to his knees, grabbing my hand and rubbing his cheek along it, "Please, don't hate me. You're all I have. I'll leave if you want. I'll do whatever you want me to do. Just please don't leave me."

"I think that's a good idea."

"What?" he gasped, looking up at me in terror.

"Just go away, Tate."

"What? No, Josie please."

I rubbed my eyes, fighting back the tears, not wanting him to see them flowing down my face uncontrollably, "Tate, just go."

"I need you, Josie, you can't mean that. Please."

"Go away Tate!" I screamed, jerking away from him and backing up until I bumped into my desk, "Go away!"

I heard him screaming as I closed my eyes and let the sobs erupt from my body. I couldn't concentrate on what he was saying, it hurt too bad. My heart felt like it was ripping out of my chest as I screamed, loud and incoherent, my voice reverberating off the walls until I couldn't scream anymore. I screamed until my voice was raspy, leaving me until nothing else would come out. I let the pain and the sadness creep up into my body, let it take me over as Tate's voice disappeared, leaving me alone in my bedroom to fall to the floor and weep.

* * *

**A/N: **

**Hey guys! I just wanted to say thank you SOOO much for all of your kind words! I have enjoyed writing this so much and I'm glad you guys love it as much as I do! I have a few more chapters coming of this and probably also a sequel! Please continue to review the story as I post chapters, you guys keep me going and make it so much fun! The more reviews I get, the more motivated I will be to get up chapters up over the holidays! Share it with your friends :) Thanks to horrorfilmroxy for reviewing and editing every chapter, you are amazing!  
**


	11. Chapter 11

I awoke the next morning alone in my bed. Alone for the first time since Tate and I had slept together. My heart ached as I reached out for him, finding no one there with me. I sat up abruptly and looked around, my eyes searching for him in the large empty space. He was nowhere to be found. Inside my mind, I remembered asking him to leave, anger and sadness filing my very soul as I screamed. Screamed to get out the pain, get out the hatred that was filling me to the brim because I didn't understand. I didn't understand how he could hurt me so bad when I loved him so much. He had claimed he loved me too. And now I didn't know what to believe.

I laid back on the bed and pulled the covers up to my chin. It was cold in my room, something that wasn't unusual. But the reason for it was gone. I was by myself. The loneliness overcame me, causing me to tremble and the tears to reemerge. I should have known this wouldn't work out. Should have known better than to let Tate get to me, reach my heart and claim it as his own. I was so sure he was being honest with me, that he cared for me, wouldn't let anything happen to me. He had protected me, saved me. He'd saved Dillon, even though it meant breaking his promise to Nora.

He'd told me about her on the beach, how she'd asked him to make her a baby. Confessed his confusion and loneliness in the house and wanting to please the women there. He had told me about feeling lost in the house, tormented by visions of the past, visions of killing those that moved into the house. The darkness that surrounded him always winning, always pulling him under…

Until he'd met me.

But how was I so special?

How was I enough to break that away from him? Heal him in a way that made him want to be a better person, make him change and find a different side to him? I wasn't anything special. I was just…me. And I wasn't good enough for anyone before, why was I something to someone now?

I dragged the covers over my head and cried. Cried for the shitty situation I found myself in. Cried for myself and my stupid feelings. Cried for Tate, for the horrible life he'd led before me and the pain he must be feeling right now. Cried for telling him to go away and not knowing how to bring him back. Fearing that maybe I could never bring him back. Worried about what he would do if I couldn't fix this.

I heard my door creak open, but I didn't care. I let the tears continued to roll down my face, burying my head in the pillow and not caring what happened to me. Let them kill me. Let them torture me. I didn't care.

"Sissy?"

_Dillon. _

I tried to pull myself together, wiping at my eyes and trying to dry my tears. But it was no use, they kept flowing, kept pouring down my face.

"Sissy?" he asked again.

I could feel the weight of him crawling up to the bed and sitting down beside me.

"Are you okay?"

"I don't know sweetie," I managed to say between sniffles.

"Tate's been in my room. He's crying."

My heart lurched forward, smothering me, bringing muffled sobs from me under the covers. I couldn't breathe. The air wouldn't come.

"He's really sad."

"I'm sorry, Dillon."

"He won't stop. I think something is really wrong with him," he whispered, pulling the covers down from my face. "Why are you crying too? Did you fight?"

He brushed my messy hair out of my face and smiled down at me. His blue eyes were worried, a look of someone much older staring down at me, concern etched in them.

I tried to get ahold of myself. I didn't want him to see me like this. He didn't understand. It took me several tries to get my breathing under control. It was like big gulps coming out of me, strange noises as I tried to catch my breath, coughing several times and feeling like I would throw up.

Finally I was able to sit up and pull him to me, burying my face in his hair, "Everything's going to be okay, Dillon. I promise."

"You should talk to him."

"I can't, sweetie."

"But you should, you always make me feel better."

I shook my head, "Dillon, just tell him to go away and he will. He can go cry somewhere else so you can play."

"But I don't want him to go away," he said, looking up at me.

"Me either, honey, me either."

* * *

"So we are going to have ourselves a movie night!" I exclaimed later that night, picking up my brother and twirling him around.

"Yay!" he said, smiling down at me with those big baby blues.

"What do you want to watch?"

He put his little finger up to his lips, considering his options and making me smile. He was so silly. "Peter Pan!"

"Okay, what else?"

"Uuuuuum….Iron Man!"

"Alright, both good choices, little man," I said, putting him back on the floor and leaning down to meet him face to face, "I'm going to get us some popcorn okay? I will be right back."

"Okay, Sissy."

I smiled, ruffling his hair and going back to the kitchen. I popped the bag into the microwave and leaned back against the counter. I could let the fake smile drop from my face now. The one that'd I'd been fighting to keep there all day long. I closed my eyes. Alone at last. My brother had barely left my side all day. I had spent the majority of it hiding in my bedroom, sulking in my misery. Dillon had dragged all of his toys into my room and taken over. I'd finally pulled myself out of bed and taken a shower, throwing on more comfy clothes and promising him a movie night if he'd quiet down.

The one person I wanted to see, I hadn't seen. I'd searched the house too, looking for him in every inch of it and even begging for the others ghost to come to me. I whispered his name in the darkness, but couldn't find him. I wasn't really sure what "go away" had meant but he'd not been back since I'd said it. I was really worried. Worry that I'd done something permanent, something irreversible. That I'd have to find a way to bring him back into my life. Things seemed different without him around. Empty. Silent. I missed him so much.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it," I mumbled to myself, pulling the popcorn out of the microwave and opening it. I poured it into a big bowl and added some extra butter. The more the happier I was going to be.

"Family movie night?" I heard, Tate's familiar voice ringing throughout small space.

I froze at his voice, excitement filling me up and a relief that he wasn't gone for good. My breath caught in my throat when I turned around and my eyes found him, leaning against the island in the center of the kitchen, "Yeah."

His eyes ran over my body hungrily, making me blush and turn back to my bowl. I picked it up and twirled back around. Tate was right there in front of me and I almost ran him over. "Shit!" I yelped, almost dropping the contents in my hand.

"Watch out, killer," he laughed.

I smacked him in the chest playfully, "You behave, Tate Langdon. I have a date with a precious little boy."

"Think I could crash it?"

I couldn't tell him no, it was almost impossible to even think straight when he ran a soft finger down my cheek. I closed my eyes, relishing in the feel of him close to me. I felt complete again, like a magnet was pulling me to him, like he was the missing puzzle piece in my life, "Sure, Tate. And we need to talk too, okay? I'm sorry, really…"

"Great! I need to go get a couple of things. I will be right back," he said and disappeared, ignoring the part where I said we needed to talk. It was important that we did, but he was gone, vanishing into thin air and pretending that nothing had ever happened.

_I'm never going to get used to that._

I retrieved two bottles of water out of the refrigerator and skipped into the living room, my excitement quickly fading into fear as I took in the scene before me. There was a young man I didn't recognize standing in my living room. He was tall, close to my age, with a large frame and he had my little brother by the dark hair on top of his head, tears streaming down his face.

"Sissy!" he cried, reaching out his small arms towards me.

The man jerked him back by his hair, causing him to cry harder.

"Please don't hurt him," I begged, dropping the bowl in my hands. It hit the floor with a slap and the popcorn flew throughout the room. The water bottles bounced away from me, rolling into unknown corners of the room. I put up my hands in front of me, "I will give you anything you need. Please, just let him go."

The man cocked his head to the side, taking in my shorts and t-shirt and smiling, "I think we could arrange something."

He took a few steps towards me, dragging my brother with him as he continued to scream, hurt by the stranger's fingers laced in his hair.

"I will do anything you want, just let him go."

He laughed, dark and dangerous as he let go of my little brother and took another step toward me. Dillon ran to me, wrapping his short frame around my leg and crying into my shorts. I let a hand reach down to cover his eyes, scowling at the man in front of me, "What do you want with us."

The man laughed again as I backed away from him, wishing my dad would get home from errands early. Wishing that Tate would show up, save me like he'd always promised. I was positive this guy wasn't a ghost. Never remembered seeing his face as I flipped through my memory, the place where I kept all the faces of those dead in the house.

"Go away," I demanded, hoping I was wrong, praying that it was a ghost standing in front of me and he'd go away when I said the magic words.

The look of shock on his face told me I was wrong. He reached into the pocket of his brown trench coat and retrieved a gun, flipping the hammer back and pointing it towards me, "You will do as I say or I will kill you both."

I felt the fear gripping me, worried not only about my own health but that of my little brother, "This is between you and me. This has nothing to do with him okay?"

"He can leave if you stay willingly."

I nodded, bending down to meet my brother's face, "Dillon. I need you to go to your room okay?"

He reached up a small hand to wipe the tears streaming from my eyes, "Sissy, please don't cry. I don't want to go."

"You will!" the stranger boomed, making us both close our eyes in fear, snapping them tightly closed and hoping the bullets wouldn't come flying towards us.

"Just go okay? I love you Dillon, please remember that."

He shook his head, gripping at my body and burying his head in my shoulder, "No Sissy no. Tate will save us."

"I hope so, sweetie," I said, running my hands through his black hair and planting a kiss on his head.

I pulled him off me and stood up, "Go on."

The tears were continuing to run down his precious face, burning the image of his fear into my brain. He turned away from me and ran down the hallway towards his room.

I gulped, turning to the tall man in front of me, "What do you want?"

"First I'm going to have my way with you. Then I'm going to kill you and your pathetic excuse for a brother. When your dad gets home I will kill him too. Maybe I will make you watch."

"Why are you doing this?" I asked.

"Because I want to. Do I really need a reason?" he asked, raising the gun to my face.

"Please. I can give you anything you want. Just don't hurt my brother."

He took a few steps toward me, grabbing me and forcing me to him, the hard metal of the gun pointed into my stomach, "I'm going to take what I want."

He ran a finger down the side of my face as I winced, trying to pull away from him but being unable to due to his tight grip on me.

"Tate!" I screamed with all my might, my voice reverberating off the walls in the home, the stranger slamming his hand over my mouth to silence me. I felt the tears trailing down my face and I found it harder to breathe, his nasty hand pressed against my mouth. I wanted him to stop. Wanted him to let me go so I could tend to my brother.

He ran his hand up my body, grabbing me by the root of the hair and causing me to yelp in pain. I could see Tate appear behind him, dropping the dozen purple roses in his hands, fear on his face, running over to us as the man whispered in my ear, "This is the end of this hell house. I'm going to burn it to the ground."

The sound of the gun going off was deafening, the pain ripping through me was horrendous. Once, twice, three times. By the last firing, my body was numb, shock taking over to shelter me from the agony. He let go of me and I had no choice but to fall to the ground, gripping at my stomach, feeling the warmth under my fingers as I doubled over. I looked up at the man, trying to form words, but feeling the hot blood bubbling up and out of my lips, running down my chin. Choking me. Smothering me.

He laughed at me, twirling the gun in his hand and tucking it into his pocket, oblivious to the young man behind him.

"No!" Tate screamed, grabbing the fire place poker out of the roaring flame and stomping towards the man.

I shook my head, wanting to tell him to stop, to calm down. But my head was growing dizzy, my eyes closing involuntarily, the world coming in blurry sequences in front of me.

I could see Tate run the stranger through with the hard metal, the sharp end of it coming out of his throat as his eyes opened up in shock. I could hear the crunching of his bone as Tate grabbed the man's face and twisted it fast, his neck breaking and falling back onto the floor. He fell on top of the man, pounding into his face in a furry, his fist coming back again and again, screaming at the top of his lungs until I could muster the strength to speak to him.

"Tate…"

His blonde head snapped up and looked over at me, registering the shape that I was in and fear replacing the intense anger on his face. He ran over to me right as I toppled over, turning me over on to my back and taking me by the hand, "Josie, please don't' die on me, please."

He reached down to my stomach, putting pressure on the open wound, "Shit. Shit. Shit," he mumbled, looking down at his already soaked hand, my blood pouring out in large amounts against his shirt.

I opened my mouth, trying to give him some words of encouragement as I saw the tears filling up his eyes, running down his cheeks and down his hard jawline. But nothing would come out, only my labored breathes coming slower now. I struggled to reach up to him, touch his face and whisper his name before I let my head fall back against the floor. Everything was blurring in front of me, my vision threatening to leave me in darkness as I grew limp.

I felt Tate pull me to him, cradling my body and rocking back and forth, "It's going to be okay, Josie, please just hold on. Don't you die on me. Don't die, please."

"What the hell! Oh my god, Tate! Josie!" I heard my dad exclaim in the distance, slamming the door behind him.

"Call the ambulance, hurry!" Tate screamed at him, pleading with him to rush.

"They are already on the way. Dillon called me."

"Hold on, Josie, please. Shit. Shit. Shit," Tate muttered, laying his head over on the top of mine. It felt like he was a million miles away, under water somewhere.

"Where's Dillon?" my father demanded.

"He's in his room. She saved him," Tate said, gripping me tighter and running his fingers through my hair.

The room grew quiet as I heard my father's footsteps running down the hall in the direction of my brother's room.

As long as he was okay.

As long as he was alive.

That's what mattered most.

"Josie!" Tate exclaimed, tears soaking my hair as he rocked me. Back and forth until I heard the distant sound of the sirens. "The ambulance is here, please hold on."

I gathered all the strength that was left in me, trying to push the words out of my mouth, wanting him to know. Wanting him to hear in case I didn't make it. He needed to know and I'd never told him.

"Tate, I love-" but I was feeling so weak. I just wanted to sleep. Wanted to lose myself in his cold embrace as I'd done so many times before. I tapped my fingers against his back, wanting it to be more of a grab, but failing as I dropped my hands down to the side. I lost control of my body, my whole being gong numb as his voice drifted further and further away.

"I know, I know, just rest please. Save your strength," Tate begged, telling me how much he loved me and then screaming as my eyes fluttered, "No! Josie! No! Wake up! Breathe!"

I heard the door slam open as I drifted off, closing my eyes and taking one final deep breath, the scent of Tate filling my nostrils as he called out, "She's over here. Help, please!"

He wouldn't let me go. They fought him to get me from him, insisting that they could help, but him refusing to let me go until I went limp in his arms. I could picture him in my head, that fear crossing his face, those tears streaming down his face, panic in his body as he tried to help me fight. But I was so tired.

Tired of fighting.

Tired of holding on.

_Just so sleepy…_

* * *

_**Alright guys! There you go! One more chapter left! Will she live or die?! Another thanks to you guys who are reading and reviewing, I greatly appreciate it! **  
_

_**Also, since this is coming to the end and I am working on the sequel, I wanted to let you guys know that Josie now has her own blog! It's set when she first moves into town, not following this storyline but being the same girl we all love. We are looking for a , Stephen and Damon Salvatore, and other characters. Message me on tumblr if you are interested!**_

_**Jose's tumblr purplebriar-rose**_

_**The RPG tumblr mysticmurderhouse  
**_

_**Please continue to review! I love hearing what you guys think!  
**_

_**Thank you so much! 3  
**_


	12. Chapter 12

My eyes shot open, taking in the darkness around me. My mouth opened, air coming in a rush into my lungs as I breathed. It was painful, cold air hastening through my throat and burning my insides. I shut my mouth, fighting my body to take in the air, use it as it was supposed to. I sat straight up, panic raising in me as I struggled to remember how I'd ended up here. But my mind was foggy, my eyes having trouble focusing as I looked around. I could barely make out the hard stone walls of the room, the stairs on the far side from where I was. It was so familiar.

"Josie?" an uncertain voice asked, coming out of the shadows in the corner.

It was then that I registered where I was. In the basement of the house, dark and damp, fear gripping at me, voices whispering to me in the darkness. I felt surrounded by them, the voices, the memories of those that had died before I moved in.

I blinked several times, trying to make my eyes adjust to the dark. I could see a figure slowly approaching me, that voice drifting to me again, "Oh my god, Josie."

He looked so familiar, the curly blonde hair a mess on top of his head, his eyes dark brown and almost black, focused on me as he continued to step forward. His eyes were rimmed with pink, showing that he'd been crying furiously for a long period of time. He wore a light tan sweater, his patterned shirt peeking out from under it, a large red stain on the front of it. His jeans were worn and ripped at the knees, his maroon converse shoes peeking out from under the lightly colored denim. His hands were shoved in his pockets as he stepped towards me, slowly, cautiously.

I felt myself backing up, terror filling up my body and running over my skin in large goose bumps, shivers taking me over as my back hit the cold wall. I didn't recognize him, but he scared me. I wasn't sure why, but I was convinced that he was dangerous.

"It's okay," the boy whispered, hands going up in a defenseless manner, concern crossing over his face as he took me in.

"Who…who are you?"

"Shit," he mumbled and paced the floor for a minute, trying to pull himself together. He frowned, turning back to me and bending down just a foot away from me. "I'm Tate," he offered, holding his hand out to shake mine.

I crossed my arms, unwilling to touch him, "How do you know my name."

"You uh, we um…damn it," he spit, running both of his hands through his blonde locks. When he looked back up at me, tears were filling up his dark eyes and spilling down his face, "I never wanted this to end this way, I'm so sorry Josie."

I rubbed my eyes, trying to bring memories to the forefront of my mind, struggling to recognize that voice that drifted from him to me. My heart acknowledged it, aching for me to reach out to him, close the distance and take him in my arms. But my mind disagreed, being unable to recall him from my memory. He could be the reason I was down here in the basement. The reason that I was scared to death.

"Tate," I whispered, letting his name roll off of my tongue.

"Yes," he said, crawling closer to me and straddling my waist. He reached up a finger to my face, warm and soft against my skin, "Everything's going to be okay, I love you."

I closed my eyes, letting my body remember him, the scent of him filling my nostrils and bringing a thousand memories tumbling into my mind quickly, everything from moving into the house to getting ready for movie night with my brother, taking my breath away and causing me to scream out. Loud and long, echoing against the confines of the basement. I grabbed his arms as the screams continued to erupt from me, squeezing him and trying to get out from under him to run away. He pushed back against me, not letting me up from the floor. He was mumbling incoherently, trying to calm me down I think.

It took several minutes for my body to stop trembling, my mind trying to sort through the thoughts until I could remember the feel of his lips on mine. The softness of his caress. The intensity of his gaze on me as I went through my daily life, his expressions of love and the feeling that arose in me when he said them. Our fight over Nora and the baby, and his blatant disregard for my bodily control. I'd pushed him out of my life, told him to go away, only to regret it the next day, apologizing to him before he disappeared with that childish grin on his face.

I tried to make my eyes focus on him, but he was blurry even though he was a few inches away from me, "How'd I get down here?"

Tate gripped my face in his hands, forcing me to look up at him. Tears were filling up his black eyes again, his lip quivering as he looked at me, "I um, I dunno. I found you down here."

I scowled, "What's with the granny sweater?"

He frowned, obviously unpleased with my question, "It's fucking comfortable, Josie. What the hell."

I let my trembling hands trail down his chest, run over the fabric where the circle of blood resided, "Is that mine…"

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you. I should have been there. This is all my fault."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, my brain still foggy, "Why are you so warm? I don't understand."

He shook his head, "Because we-we're the same temperature. I was really hoping you'd make it to the hospital and they could…"

"Don't be ridiculous," I interrupted, shaking my head, "You- you're dead. And I-I'm alive. I'm warmer, I've always been. I'm…oh god." I felt myself grow still, realization settling into me. Part of my memory was missing. There was a big gaping hole from the time I walked through the living room door, popcorn in hand, and waking up on the floor in the basement. I could feel the tears stinging at my eyes, high pitched whines rising up and out of my throat.

_That was my bloodied mess on his shirt._

Tate's jaw tightened, worry coming over his face as he looked at me, "You're safe now. No one can hurt you."

He pulled me to him and I buried myself in his sweater, letting the tears flow down my face as I tried to come to terms with what was happening. I couldn't remember what happened. I didn't know if my family was safe. If I was…then there was a chance that they were…and I couldn't stand it if something happened to them. But I couldn't move for the intense sobs jerking me in his arms, my breath coming in short quick bursts as I cried, screamed. I'd never heard such agonizing sounds coming from myself before. They were unlike anything I'd ever heard. It was scaring me. I begged for Tate to tell me otherwise, tell me that I was okay. That I was alive. I begged him to tell me that this was a dream, that I'd wake up any minute and we'd be asleep in bed together.

Tate didn't answer me.

He just continued to hold me tightly to him, strong hands at my back and not letting me go. He kissed the top of my head and laid his cheek on it, his hand lightly rubbing my back to comfort me, "It's you and me together for always."

"How long have I been out?" I managed to ask.

"Seven days. I was terrified that you wouldn't show up."

"Since when does time matter to you?"

"Since you left me…I knew you'd want to know when…ya know."

I nodded in agreement. This all felt so surreal. I still wasn't sure I wasn't dreaming. I ran my hands down his clothing and underneath it, placing my hand onto the skin there. He was so warm, the same temperature as myself. I moved my hands to his back to encompass him in my arms. Closing my eyes, I tried to force myself to wake up. I'd wished him away. There was no way he'd forgive me this quickly. No way.

"I'm sorry for telling you to go away," I whispered, pulling back and looking up into his eyes.

He raised his hand to wipe the tears from my face and smiled, "It's okay. I'm way over it. What I did was shitty, Josie. But I promise you, no more lies."

"Thank you."

"I love you," he said painfully, looking at me as if expecting me to say the same. I wasn't sure why he was looking at me like that, a need in his eyes to hear me say it. He'd always been okay with me taking my time to say it. I never had.

"Tate…I…"

He lowered his eyebrows and shook his head as if trying to clear something from his mind, "It's okay. Don't worry about it."

Tate pulled back from me and stood up. He reached a hand down to me and I took it, allowing him to pull me up with him. I stumbled against him at first, my feet unsure as they tried to balance on the floor. He took a hold of me, steadying me until I was able to stand on my own. He watched me carefully, ready to spring at any moment if I tripped again.

I took his hand and a flashback hit me: _Tate with his hand cupping my face and running his finger across my lips, "are you scared now?". "Yes," I breathed, barely able to let the words out as he leaned into kiss me, softly, sweetly, letting go of my braid and moving to tangle his hand in the hair at my scalp. Our first kiss._

"Are you okay?" Tate asked, snapping me back to reality.

I nodded, yearning for that more innocent time. Time when we had first met. When I didn't know about his life as a living breathing person. When I was scared of him, but intrigued by him, letting myself feel free for the first time as he laid me back onto my bed. His cold skin against my fierce fire burning underneath him, consuming me.

"Are you sure?"

I pulled my hand from his and wrapped my arms around my body, desperately wanting my hand to still have that trace of coldness after his touch left me. Like it used to. The chill in my hands being the only proof that he'd been there with me at times before. That high pitched crying squeal erupted from me again as I began to rock back and forth on the balls of my feet. I wasn't ready for this. I was young. I had my whole life ahead of me. And now it was gone and I was trapped.

Trapped in this house.

I tore away from him, through the back door of the basement. I heard him scream my name from behind me but I didn't listen. I continued to walk out into the sun, throwing my hand up to hide its brightness from my eyes. My body whirled in circles, trying to focus on something around me. Anything to ground me in reality. I felt my legs gaining strength and running forward, the edge of the grass growing closer. I was going to make it. I was going to escape.

But I was back in the house suddenly, coming through the back door of the main floor and running into the basement before I could be seen. I skimmed down the steps, seeing Tate still standing there, concerned look on his face.

"Josie, stop," he begged, reaching out for me and grabbing me the forth time I tried to run. The third time I found myself back in the basement of the house.

"I'm smothering, Tate. I can't get out. I can't escape. I need to be free. Why is this happening to me?"

"You're dead. You died here. In this house. You can never leave, I'm so sorry," he said, pulling me to him and stroking my hair with his hand.

"Did you do this to me?" I asked, terrified to hear the answer.

He pulled back from me to look at me, hands on my arms, "No! I would never hurt you."

"Then what happened? I can't remember."

Tate shook his head and rubbed his tired eyes, "I don't think we should talk about this right now."

"I don't care what you _think_, Tate. I want to know the truth about what happened."

"Okay, but you can't go freaking out on me and running off again. You don't want them to see you. It'd tear them apart."

"Who?"

"Your family."

_Dad. Dillon. _"They-they're alive?"

"Yes."

"Then how…why am I…"

"There was an intruder in the house. I don't know how he got here. I just left you for a minute, Jos. Just a minute to get you some flowers so I could really apologize to you for the way I acted. Just a minute for that bastard to get you and…"

I felt my body start to shake under his hands, not wanting to know the rest of the sentence. He looked up at me with so much pain on his face and I knew he didn't want to tell me. He didn't want to terrorize me even more.

"Do you remember dying?" I asked him.

"No."

"Why don't we remember dying?"

"I don't know."

"Do any of the others remember?"

"Some of them do. Some of them don't. Some of them remember everything from when they were alive. Others barely remember anything. I was so scared when I found you down here. You had this look on your face like you were so confused. I was so damn terrified that you wouldn't remember anything. Wouldn't remember us."

I ran my hands up his chest and around his neck, "Tate, I need to know."

"He shot you, Josie. He shot you and I was too late. I tried to save you. I put pressure on the wound but you bled through. There was so much blood. Your dad came home, the ambulance came. But it was too late."

"And Dillon?"

"He left before…before you were hurt. He didn't see anything."

I felt relief fill my body, "Oh thank goodness."

"He's been crying. A lot."

"Can I see him?"

Tate shook his head, "Josie, I don't know. It can be hard to keep from revealing yourself to someone that you really want to see you. Maybe you should wait."

"But I want to see him so badly. I have to know he's okay."

"It's harder to hide from kids. They have this weird kind of ability to tune into us."

"I need to see him!" I screamed, pushing Tate away from me. I hadn't meant to push him that hard, but he flew away from me and against the far wall.

I ran over to him, apologizing and trying to hold him. He stepped away from me, "Watch it there, killer. You're a lot stronger now."

"Stronger than you?" I asked, feeling that need in me rising up. The need to have him naked against me, playing my body in that way he knew how. I wasn't sure where it had come from, but the power rush was almost crippling.

I could tell he recognized that look on my face because his face darkened, that animalistic glare coming over his face. I wasn't afraid now, though, he couldn't hurt me. He could look at me all day like that and I knew it was useless. It felt powerful to not have that fear in me. It made me feel more in control.

"Probably not," he answered, catching my wrist in his hand and yanking me towards him.

He kissed me, hard on the lips, but not daring to deepen it, waiting to see how I was going to react. I could feel his hand still around my wrist, the only thing other than our lips touching. I wanted to give in to him. I wanted to loose myself in him as I'd done so many times before. But he was warm against my lips, hot against my skin. And it scared me.

I jerked away from him, apologizing profusely before I disappeared.

* * *

**AN:  
OMG! That's it! I hope you liked this last chapter!**

**You have no idea how much I appreciate all the reviews from you all and your kind words, it makes my day every time! AND since you are fabulous, I am going to go ahead and post the first chapter of the sequel: Whisper  
**

**3 XOXO -Emera  
**


End file.
